Google has invested in the Indian firm Progcap, which serves small and medium-sized enterprises, as part of its $40 million Series C fundraising round.
Google became the newest investor in SME-focused fintech Progcap after taking part in the company’s $40 million Series C fundraising round (around Rs 308 crore). Tiger Global Management and Creation Investments, both existing investors, lead the round.
The New Delhi-based business was valued at $600 million in the financing, a threefold increase from its prior valuation of $200 million.
Sequoia Capital India, another existing investor, also contributed, bringing the total Series C fundraising round to $70 million (about 539 crore).
Progcap also intends to become operationally viable in the coming months, according to co-founder Pallavi Shrivastava in an interview on Monday. Desiderata Impact Ventures Pvt. Ltd., which runs Progcap, has raised approximately $100 million in equity capital in the previous year. It also reported a $1 billion yearly disbursement.
According to a second statement, the firm intends to use the new funds for product development and to support ongoing expansion initiatives.
Progcap raised $30 million in October as part of a Series C fundraising round headed by Tiger Global and Creation Investments. This comes after the firm raised $25 million in June as part of its Series B financing round headed by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.
Stride Ventures led a $1.37 million debt fundraising round for the firm in February 2021. In July 2019, Sequoia led a $5 million Series A round of investing into Progcap. CIBIL chairman MV Nair, Freecharge co-founder Sandeep Tandon, and GrowX Ventures Fund were among those who took part in the exercise. GrowX Ventures led a $1 million funding round in April 2019.
According to the financial firm, 700,000 shops utilize its platform. According to Shrivastava, the corporation is also trying to buy a non-banking financial company (NBFC) to help with business expansion.
According to the announcement, “Progcap is becoming the main operational engine for all of its clients’ transactions, providing them with credit and technology solutions that make their businesses more effective,” said Srivastava and fellow co-founder Himanshu Chandra.
The corporation added numerous top executives to its leadership team last year. Abhinav Singh, a former associate partner at McKinsey & Co., joined the business as chief growth officer, while Ashish Gupta, a former Policybazaar chief technology officer, oversees Progcap’s tech and product divisions.
Progcap, founded in 2017, aspires to be a full-stack retailer-focused digital bank that facilitates capital flow across the supply chain to underserved shops.
The firm claims that their financing solution for stores in tier-2, tier-3, and tier-4 locations provides clients with simply accessible and flexible collateral-free working capital loans.
Shrivastava, an XLRI Jamshedpur alumni, has previously worked as the regional head for International Finance Corporation, Hinduja Group, and Infosys. Chandra formerly worked at Barclays and Standard Chartered Bank.