Stride Ventures leads ₹10-crore debt round in Sequoia-backed Progcap

Stride Ventures has led a debt round of ₹10 crore in Progcap, a growing fintech player providing access to fast and flexible collateral-free working capital to retailers.

Founded in 2017 by Pallavi Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra, Progcap provides access to fast and flexible collateral-free working capital to retailers in Tier-II, III, and IV areas, where retailers typically face challenges in accessing capital for their businesses. Through its Last Mile Retailer Finance (LMRF) facility, the fintech company which has over two lakh retailers on its platform, provides the underbanked, semi-urban and rural retailers in India access to flexible, collateral-free working capital and has scaled up over 5x post Covid-19 with best-in-class asset quality. The company will also look to strengthen its ties with banks and corporates by leveraging Stride’s network.

Also read: Strides Ventures raises ₹85 crore from SIDBI

This is Stride Ventures’ 14th investment from its maiden fund and second in the fintech space.

“India has a complex supply chain. However, the solutions for small dealers and retailers are limited. Accessibility to credit will enable them to be at the forefront of India’s consumption story and Progcap is well positioned to drive this change,” said Ishpreet Gandhi, Founder and Managing Partner, Stride Ventures.

Pallavi and Himanshu, Co-Founders, Progcap, said, “We are excited to partner with Stride Ventures as we continue to scale the business. While Progcap is well capitalised, it is the Stride team’s deep expertise in the banking ecosystem that we are looking forward to tap into to help accelerate our growth. We have just crossed $100 million in disbursals and expect to reach $1 billion GMV by March ’22.

Also read: SUGAR Cosmetics raises $2 million in debt round led by Stride Ventures

Stride Ventures launched its maiden fund in 2019 and plans to invest in 25-30 start-ups for Stride Venture India Fund I.