[Funding alert] Progcap raises Rs 7 Cr in seed round led by GrowX Ventures

Technology-driven lending company Progcap raised a seed funding of Rs 7 crore led by GrowX Ventures, a B2B and deep tech-focused early-stage venture fund. Contrarian Drishti, along with angel investors Somak Ghosh and Abhishek Dalmia also participated in the round.

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Progcap was founded by Pallavi Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra in 2017. Pallavi has a background in development finance having worked for the likes of International Finance Corporation and the World Bank. Himanshu has spent over a decade in the financial services industry, working with institutions like Standard Chartered, Barclays, and the Carlyle Group.

The founders said, “Our vision is to broaden the opportunities for businesses in the last mile. There are over 20 million retailers in India who are unplugged from formal financing. We are working towards building a platform to integrate these businesses into the real economy.”

The duo added that it’s a terrific partnership with GrowX, which has helped in broadening the vision for the company while helping to build key partnerships.

Manu Rikhye, Partner at GrowX Ventures, said,

“Progcap is focussed on a very large and underserved market of micro-business owners. Its approach to solving the financial needs of the last-mile retailers will deliver tremendous value across the supply chain, starting from the large brands and distributors to the retailers."

The company’s mission is to empower customers by providing affordable and timely credit, leveraging world-class technology. Through its Last Mile Retailer Finance facility (LMRF), Progcap provides access to fast and flexible collateral-free working capital to retailers in Tier II, III, and IV towns, where retailers typically face challenges in accessing capital for their businesses.

Over half of Progcap’s customers are new to the credit ecosystem. Its lending platform does risk assessment of these businesses using non-traditional ecosystem data, creating credit scores for customers currently left out by traditional financial institutions.

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