Startup news and updates: daily roundup (December 29, 2022)

Progcap strengthens its leadership team 

Financial technology firm Progcap has strengthened its leadership ranks with the appointment of Zafar Imam as Executive Director (ED) – Lending. In his role, Imam will focus on growing the company’s lending business by expanding across industries and product ranges.

A banking and finance veteran with two decades of experience, Imam has held leadership roles across brands such as Finshell, Axis Bank, HDFC and Cholamandalam. 

Earlier this year, Progcap bolstered its leadership team by making strategic talent acquisitions. The company had appointed Abhishek Lall as Chief Business Officer. Abhishek has led a large supply chain finance book at Standard Chartered Bank and IDFC First. The company also appointed Swati R. Agarwal as Chief Risk Officer and Vishal Wali as Chief Collections Officer.

Founded by Pallavi Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra, Progcap digitises supply chains and facilitates access to finance for last-mile retailers. The company is backed by Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Google, Creation Investments, GrowX Ventures and other investors.

Bharat Founders Fund backs 45 early-stage startups

Bharat Founders Fund (BFF), an early-age venture of investors, has backed over 45 startups from the angel to seed stage with an average investment amount close to $100,000, since March 2022.

The investor group, which consists of over 70 growth-stage startup leaders from different industries, has invested across multiple sectors such as SaaS, edtech, cleantech, fintech, healthtech, ecommerce and Web3. 

Some of the recent investments made by BFF are an AI (artificial intelligence) platform for Infrastructure management Accacia; a SaaS platform UserStudy, and real-time multimodal visibility for supply chain Intugine, Carbon Masters, Bluecopa and Mokobara among others.

Over the next few years, BFF aims to invest in another 50-80 companies. Additionally, the group said it is focussed on building a library of resources, a system for mentoring and guidance, and an interaction and networking platform to better help founders in the first 12-24 months of their startup journey.

CASHe launches digital gold programme

Credit-led financial wellness platform CASHe has launched GOLDe Rewards, a rewards programme backed by digital gold for prospective borrowers and the users on its platform. 

The programme incentivises every user with GOLDe Rewards in the form of digital gold coins equivalent to 1% of every loan transaction, deposited in a gold jar made available to them on the CASHe app. 

Each GOLDe reward point earned by the users is equivalent to Rs 1 worth of digital gold on the CASHe app. The GOLDe reward points accumulated by the users can be converted to digital gold and then can be redeemed as cash to buy movie tickets, dine at a restaurant, or even deposit in their bank account. 

Customers availing loans with tenures having 3,6,9 and 12 months will be eligible to avail of the GOLDe Rewards programme from CASHe.

(This copy will be updated with the latest news throughout the day)