Avanti Finance Raises Series B Funding of USD 24 Mn from Rabo Partnerships, IDH Farmfit Fund and Existing Investors

Bengaluru-based Avanti Finance (“Avanti”), a technology-led NBFC focused on financial inclusion, has secured USD 24 million equity funding from Rabo Partnerships, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Rabobank Group focused on financial inclusion and rural development, and IDH Farmfit Fund. Existing investors Oikocredit and NRJN Trust also participated in the fundraise. The investment will support Avanti's mission of providing frictionless, affordable and hyperlocal credit products to smallholder farmers in India, enabling them to build sustainable livelihoods.

The investment in Avanti is in line with Rabo Partnerships’ "smallholder ecosystem" strategy, which focuses on providing data-driven finance solutions to smallholder farmers through local cooperatives and service providers. Smallholders play an increasingly important role in feeding a growing world population. Increasing access to financial services will benefit farmer households and help achieve rural development and global food system change.

Rahul Gupta, CEO of Avanti Finance said, "We are delighted to have Rabo Partnerships and IDH Farmfit Fund as our new partners with their global experience in the agri space. There is complete mission-alignment to create a population scale, digital financial inclusion platform for the un/underserved segment, including smallholder farmers that constitute 86% of our agrarian economy, yet continue to battle against the circle of poverty. This investment will support ongoing investments in our deep tech platform to develop fit for purpose hyperlocal credit products, automated data & social signals driven underwriting for data-dark customers, amplify our partnership network and accelerate co-lending programs with other financial institutions for capital efficiency. The Avanti team has done a ton of heavy lifting to establish a digital delivery model with our unique paperless, presenceless & cashless approach, served 275K households, disbursed over 1300 crores with a lean team of only 65 employees and zero proprietary branches, showcasing the power of digital & leveraging existing community based networks. We are now ready to take the leap towards 1.5 million served households with a targeted AUM of over 2500 crores in the next 24 months.”

Marianne Schoemaker, CEO Rabo Partnerships at Rabobank said, “Avanti has established itself as a frontrunner in digital and business model innovation by leveraging local organisations and high-tech financial solutions, and we are excited to support its growth. We believe in Avanti’s vision of financial inclusion, especially for the agricultural sector, where access to appropriate financial services remains a challenge for many. Due to the large number of farmers, the digital infrastructure and the ICT talent available, the Indian market is the ideal place to test and scale innovative solutions for food transition and creating a more inclusive society. This investment supports our strategy of promoting data-driven finance solutions through local cooperatives and service providers, which is close to our roots as a cooperative bank.”

Miguel Tamayo Maertens, Investment Director at IDH Farmfit Fund said, "Avanti has developed a scalable ,digital solution to unlock finance for smallholder farmers. Smallholder farming is at the core of livelihood economic activities in rural India and we are excited to support Avanti's mission of providing access to timely and affordable finance to millions of farmers. This strategic partnership supports the IDH Farmfit Fund strategy to invest in innovative and impactful solutions that are enabling the access to finance and connected services to smallholder farmers so they can improve their livelihoods".

Avanti has co-created more than 180 customised loan products to cater to different types of livelihood streams and income flows. Avanti Finance currently has 75 mission-aligned partners including social enterprises, financial institutions, business correspondents, agri tech players and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) covering 24 states and appx 300 districts in India

Abhiraj Krishna Associates acted as the legal advisors and Unitus Capital acted as exclusive financial transaction advisor to Avanti.

About Avanti Finance

Avanti’s mission is to enable sustainable livelihoods and empower the next 100 million households through accessible and affordable financial services. It is building a co-creation platform that fosters hyperlocal livelihood innovation and mass customisation. Avanti believes community-centric systems enable the digitisation of the social trust of the users, which is critical to building scale in the unbanked segment. For more information, see www.avantifinance.in

About Rabo Partnerships

Rabo Partnerships is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rabobank Group, focused on creating structural impact through improvement of financial inclusion, rural development and food security. Drawing on the capabilities of the Rabobank Group, Rabo Partnerships contributes with knowledge, networks, digital solutions, impact finance and investments to partnerships for improving rural development and agricultural sectors in emerging economies. The activities of Rabo partnerships focus on two transitions Rabobank wants to contribute to: A More Inclusive Society & Food Transition. Rabobank’s mission of Growing a better world together is also reflected in Rabo Partnerships’ collaborations with many public and private sector partners. For more information, go to visit Rabo Partnerships - Rabobank.

About IDH Farmfit Fund

The IDH Farmfit Fund is a EUR 100m impact investment fund, aimed at enabling increased access to affordable finance for smallholders and allow for responsible business growth and/or efficiency gains for smallholder farmers. The Fund takes on the highest-risk positions in farmer related investment transactions, to reduce liabilities for borrowers and lenders. In turn, smallholder farmers can access long-term financing that allows them to invest in their farms, increase productivity, and adopt best practices for climate-smart agriculture. The IDH Farmfit Fund is facilitated by IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative, and supported by a unique coalition of partners including commercial banks, development banks, government bodies and value chain companies. www.idhsustainabletrade.com

Ninjacart Partners With Avanti Finance To Launch Innovative Credit Products Focused On The Agri Value Chain

Ninjacart, India's leading agri-platform which leverages technology to organise the agriculture ecosystem, has expanded its capabilities within the agri-tech space championing digital financial inclusivity through a strategic partnership with Avanti Finance. Through this newly forged alliance, Ninjacart and Avanti Finance will work to provide easy access to credit products as well as leverage unique technology capabilities and resources for the upliftment of the agri value chain community.

The agri community heavily relies on informal lending as a large portion of this population remains underserved by the banks or the NBFCs. Through this partnership Ninjacart and Avanti, will co-create and make available relevant credit products to the Agri community at a reasonable cost, thereby helping them manage their cash flow, improve their working capital and alleviate their financial hardships.

The combination of the digital-first approach of Avanti Finance with data insights provided by Ninjacart will be a driving force in introducing innovative lending-defined products focused on the agri value chain. The vision is to build a platform that will be compliant with OCEN- Open Credit Enablement Network for secured credit information flow. With a first-of-its-kind infrastructure and a D2D2C (digital-to-digital-to-consumer) model, this partnership will enable smooth credit transactions, allowing for the development of tailored loan solutions based on cash flow data from agri-players.

Stressing the need of providing easy financing, Mr. Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO & Co-Founder of Ninjacart, said ‘‘Ninjacart’s endeavour is to streamline the whole agri-ecosystem benefiting all agri-players across the food supply chain, allowing them to utilise the infrastructure to its full potential. Partnership with Avanti Finance is a perfect example of how together we can add value to the agriculture ecosystem by bringing respective strengths. The financing will give the agri community more freedom, allowing them to make the best decisions for their own benefit. We plan to augment the potential of this partnership further by extending credit facilities to the ecosystem's agri-participants such as traders, food growers, producers, farmers, and retail outlets’’.

Commenting on the partnership, Manish Thakker, COO of Avanti Finance, said "Avanti's partnership with Ninjacart is another step to providing cashflow-linked financial services to the un/underserved segment and infuse digital financial inclusion in the agri-value chain ecosystem. This is an example of how seamless collaboration among existing networks can provide financing options that are reasonable to end-users, helping them build sustainable livelihoods."

Ninjacart is India's leading agri-platform, which leverages technology and data to organise the agri commerce ecosystem. Ninjacart aims to be the digital plumbing network for global agri commerce that solves structural problems such as information asymmetry, payment hassles, distribution inefficiency, and discovering new buyers and sellers with tech-first solutions. Today, Ninjacart operates in 150+ markets across multiple agri commodities. To know more, please visit www.ninjacart.com

About Avanti Finance:

Avanti’s mission is to enable sustainable livelihoods and empower the next 100 million households through accessible and affordable financial services. It is building a co-creation platform that fosters hyperlocal livelihood innovation and mass customisation. Avanti believes community-centric systems enable digitization of the social trust of the users, critical to building scale in the unbanked segment. To know more, please visit https://avantifinance.in/

To Offer Affordable Loans to COVID-affected Entrepreneurs, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Avanti Finance Collaborate

Avanti Finance today announced its collaboration with Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to support micro-entrepreneurs in securing low-cost debt as they strive to rebuild their livelihoods and resume business activity following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is an innovative strategic collaboration in the social fintech sector. The Dell Foundation has provided Avanti Finance with a low-cost debt of INR 15 crore, which Avanti will utilize to provide unsecured loans amounting to as much as INR 150,000 to low-income borrowers in urban and peri-urban areas in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu for a period of up to 30 months. Avanti’s extensive network of partners, curated to accelerate access to formal credit and customized financial products to the unbanked, will be leveraged to execute this program.

“We are committed to helping micro-entrepreneurs return to normalcy and be on a path to recovery. Avanti provides a strong digital loan delivery model. Their open-access technology platform enables credit operations in a paperless, presence-less and cashless manner. Avanti’s partnerships with various community organizations on the ground ensure that funds are channeled to borrowers, which can be used to rebuild livelihoods that have been disrupted by COVID-induced economy shutdowns as part of our Road to Recovery program,” said Nat Malupillai, Director, India, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

“Our collaboration with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation comes at a vital moment when micro entrepreneurs need every support to be on a road to recovery. This impact-driven initiative to support entrepreneurs with limited access to capital will help them rebuild their businesses and financial health, which have been severely affected by the pandemic. In the next few months, this low-cost loan program will help them regain their economic and social status,” said Manish Thakkar, COO, Avanti Finance.

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Avanti Finance are known for their pioneering work in providing access to financial assistance and helping to assimilate underserved communities within the organized financial system. The partnership promises to boost economic recovery, improve the quality of livelihoods, and move the needle on financial inclusion in India.

About the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in India is focused on enabling children and youth in aspirational India to reach their goals through quality education and employment opportunities. This focus is driven by investments in education, jobs and livelihood and financial inclusion. With over $200 million in investments over the past 14 years, the foundation has impacted the lives of over 12 million children and families in the country.

About Avanti Finance:

Avanti Finance Pvt. Ltd. is a digital financial inclusion platform operating under an NBFC license. The company was founded by Mr. Ratan Tata, Dr. Vijay Kelkar and Mr. Nandan Nilekani with a mission to provide affordable financial services to 100 million unserved and underserved households in India.