Tiger Global-backed fintech startup Progcap eyes 1M users by the end of 2022
In a recent conversation with YourStory’s Daily Dispatch, Pallavi Shrivastava, Co-founder and Director, Progcap, shares valuable insights on the company’s growth trajectory through the global pandemic.
New Delhi-based retail-focussed financing provider player recently raised $30 million in a Series C round of funding led by Tiger Global Management and Creation Investments.
Founded in 2017 by Pallavi and Himanshu Chandra, the startup provides flexible collateral-free working capital to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and retailers in India.
Commenting on the development, Pallavi Shrivastava, Co-founder and Director, Progcap said that the startup is looking at the fresh capital as an extension of the $25 million Series B funding round that it raised in June this year.
Overall, Progcap has raised $55 million in the last three months.
“It’s a testimony to the fact that there is a huge excitement about the retailer financing market,” Pallavi says.
The company claims to have conducted around Rs 2,000 crore of disbursals in the last one year and now aims to reach $1 billion in disbursals by March 2022. In terms of customer base, Progcap intends to reach over 1 million users by the end of 2022, the co-founder says.
According to Pallavi, the startup is working with corporates to become relevant in their supply chains. On one end, it helps corporates with their retail channels and on the other, it enables retailers get easy access to funds, thus providing services to both sides.
Progcap is also building a stronger supply chain platform, potentially adding more products. Currently, retailers and distributors transact with each other while corporates engage with their partners but most of these transactions are informal. The startup aims to make these processes formal.
“Our focus is to launch more products over the next twelve months to really digitise and formalise the transactions and add value to all the partners in the ecosystem,” says Pallavi.
Progcap is looking to fund the supply chains of their corporate partners and work with banks as well. “Overall the market in India is very exciting at the moment both for the investor sentiment and as well as the fintech partners who are working on the supply chains to solve problems on the ground,” says Pallavi.
The company’s current focus is on building its book and servicing the incoming demand, mentions Pallavi. Progcap also plans to work on building its brand identity.
Progcap has 450,000 retailers on its platform.
“There is a lot of pull that’s coming from across the ecosystem and the idea is to Progcap out there and be a brand that customers know and are able to recall,” says Pallavi.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti