Asset financing company ORIGA Leasing raises Rs 7 cr. from ah! Ventures, 500 Startups
Asset financing platform ORIGA Leasing has raised Rs 7 crore from ah! Ventures, 500 Startups and other high profile investors across sectors. The funds will be used towards leasing of assets, people and technology.
Launched by Shrirang Tambe in May 2013, ORIGA Leasing provides alternative financing through its asset leasing solutions to high growth companies across segments such as healthcare, sanitation, waste management, alternative energy, manufacturing and service-oriented businesses.
Shrirang says, “One of the key aspects of ORIGA Leasing is to invest significantly in building a robust technology, right from customer acquisition to asset management. In addition to innovation in our leasing products, we also aspire to become the world’s largest fintech leasing company. We expect to touch an asset book for $100 million within the next three to four years just in India.”
The startup focusses mainly on leasing of assets which generate revenues for its clients. It has developed a solution of Asset Life Cycle Management (ALCM) which helps its clients conserve their capital for working capital and marketing, while ORIGA takes care of their assets in totality. Thus, the internal accruals and leasing funds the next expansion plan.
According to industry reports, the market for alternative financing is conservatively estimated to be $50 billion. There is a huge gap between the conventional financing available and the needs of new age companies. This platform claims to be critically positioned right in between to bridge that gap.
On investment, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO, ah! Ventures, says, “ORIGA Leasing is one of the first companies in India to provide asset leasing solutions for the unbanked and under-banked SMEs with high growth. Their hybrid model offers a perfect blend between online discovery and offline delivery of financial products, thus helping achieve scale. We believe that each vertical of ORIGA has the potential to touch millions of dollars by themselves and ORIGA could, within the next decade, very well aspire to become a bank and contribute to the ongoing financial inclusion drive of India”.
According to Ulhas Deshpande, Investor and board member at ORIGA, 46 per cent of the SME financing in Europe and 72 per cent of SME financing in America take place through asset leasing. In India, it is less than one per cent of the total credit disbursed. “It is an innovative business model that would immensely help mid-sized entrepreneurs gain access to much needed funding.”
In recent years, the fintech segment has observed a steep growth globally. According to a recent report by Accenture, investment in fintech companies grew by 201 per cent globally in 2014, compared to 63 per cent growth in overall venture-capital investments. In 2014, the global investment in fintech ventures tripled to $12.21 billion increasing from $4.05 billion in 2013. Big data analytics and predictive modeling, mobility, payments, risk management and security, among others, are the current hot topics in the financial technology ecosystem.
The investment in ORIGA Leasing is part of the euphoria in the fintech segment. “Financing through asset leasing for revenue generating assets creates capacities; capacities creates jobs and income, which finally go towards contributing to the GDP of the nation. We are inculcating a new thought – financial inclusion at B2B level,” says Shrirang.
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