Sugmya Finance, SME Corner raise early-stage funds
YourStory presents daily funding roundups from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Thursday, January 5, 2023.
Sugmya Finance raises Rs 100 crore in debt funding
, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) catering to women-led communities in rural and semi-urban India, has raised Rs 100 crore in debt funding from an undisclosed set of investors.
Founded in 2019, the company offers MSME loans, micro-loans and consumer durable loans to entrepreneurs. It has a branch network of 80 branches in over 40 districts with 10,000 villages in nine states.
The company says it has assets under management (AUM) worth Rs 160 crore and has disbursed over Rs 275 crore in 2022. Sugmya Finance also announced the opening of its 100th branch in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.
“We are excited about reaching the milestone of 100, both in terms of raising debt fund, as well as branch expansion. Delivering value to our customers through consistent and long-term performance-oriented products has always been a primary focus for us," Vikas Singh, Director of Sugmya Finance, said.
Ambit Finvest acquires SME Corner for undisclosed amount
Ambit Finvest Pvt Ltd (NBFC of the Ambit Group) has acquired Mumbai-based SME Corner's lending business for an undisclosed amount.
The deal will allow Ambit Finvest to strengthen its SME lending business through SME Corner's proprietary online platform that uses AI and machine learning to disburse loans. SME Corner says it has lent to over 17,000 SME business owners to date and currently has an AUM (assets under management) of around Rs 450 crore.
As per the terms of the transaction, Ambit Finvest would acquire the assets of SME Corner along with its 300 employees and its proprietary online platform.
"We are thrilled to welcome SME Corner into our fold. They have built a phenomenal proprietary technology, ground-up, entailing development efforts spanning four years. This will help accelerate our digital lending services and solutions. We will now be able to better enhance our origination footprint on the digital side," Sanjay Agarwal, CEO, Ambit Finvest, said.
Local news platform PublicNext receives Rs 1 crore from Google
Local news publishing and networking platform has received Rs 1 crore funding from Google and has been selected as a recipient of the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge (Asia Pacific).
The company will use the funding to scale up its technology team and build an artificial intelligence-powered system to moderate news content.
"We intend to replicate user adoption, unit economics across 28 states and 8 union territories in the next 4 to 5 years. Looking at the demand for local content and community, the future looks bright with audio interaction like clubhouse being built for authorities to interact with local people, Local question and answer platform, and even local commerce leveraging ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce)," Manjunath Rao, CEO, PublicNext said in a statement.