Capital Float, a Bangalore based online platform that provides working capital finance to SMEs in India has raised $2 million (Rs.12 crore) from Aspada Investment Company. The company works with SMEs across a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, services, and e-commerce and is led by Gaurav Hinduja and Sashank Rishyasringa, who both returned to India to start Capital Float after completing their MBAs at Stanford University.
"Small businesses are the key to India's sustained growth, yet most lack access to mainstream bank finance and cannot easily access working capital and short term debt. As a result, many are forced to resort to borrowing from friends and family, supplier credit, or high interest loans from informal sources to meet the day-to-day funding needs of the business," said Gaurav Hinduja.
"The majority of SMEs today operate with cash cycles of 60 days or longer, with few institutional options for working capital finance. By investing in technology, we've lowered the costs of customer acquisition and credit decision-making, and developed a methodology for timely and transparent financing that can benefit a vastly underserved and unorganized segment," explained Sashank Rishyasringa.
Capital Float offers loans ranging from Rs 3 lac - 30 lac, with terms between 1 - 12 months. Capital Float is the trade name of Zen Lefin Pvt. Ltd., a non-banking finance company (NBFC) registered with the RBI. The company is headquartered in Bangalore.
"Capital Float possesses an outstanding founding team that has built a sophisticated platform that is unique within the Indian small business lending segment. There are numerous global proxies of enormous scale in this model, and we believe that the Capital Float team can build a world-class organization that can alter the market for SME finance in India and beyond," said Kartik Srivatsa of Aspada Investment Advisors.
The Aspada Investment Company which is also based out of Bangalore, is backed with a significant commitment from the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF). Aspada has also invested in end-to-end fresh vegetable supply chain company, Lawrencedale Agri Processing, which operates in South India to aggregate fresh produce at the farm gate and sell to retail consumers in major markets under the LEAF brand; ThinkLink Supply Chain Services, a provider of turnkey project management, design, skill development, and staffing services in India's logistics and supply chain sectors; NeoGrowth Credit, a merchant cash advance business that provides loans to small merchants in India; and Schedulers Logistics, an end-to-end cold chain logistics provider. In addition, Aspada also oversees the portfolio of the SONG Fund, an early stage venture capital firm funded by the Soros Economic Development Fund, Omidyar Network, and Google.
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