Tag: Sub-K

Business

5 startups that are providing financial assistance to small businesses

Dec 9, 2021 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #financial assistance to small businesses, #OkCredit, #Progcap, #ShopKirana, #StoreKing, #Sub-K

COVID-19 achieved the unthinkable: it expedited digitalization by more than a decade across sectors and industries. Due to restrictions and social distancing conventions, even small companies and kiranas have chosen to go digital. Accepting online payments, ordering supplies online, controlling inventories, and more were all part of the package.

All of it, though, came with its own set of difficulties. Despite a dynamic startup ecosystem in the country, sometimes finding funds and investors for small business entrepreneurs in the growth phase is still a challenge. Here are five organizations that are providing solutions and facilitating financial uplift for small businesses by providing low-interest loans and on-demand financing for working capital. They also offer expert guidance on how to invest money and timely bill payment alerts to help people maintain clean credit histories to qualify for larger loans.

StoreKing

StoreKing, a rural retail ecosystem that connects suppliers and financial institutions to rural consumers with Kirana as an anchor, also leverages the retail/kirana stores to cater to the rural masses, by connecting them with NBFC lenders, who are otherwise inaccessible to the village folks. StoreKing has already established a network of 25000 kirana stores, which will be utilized to connect rural folks to NBFC lenders. StoreKing has so far disbursed 120 crores worth of loans and has also had a remarkable collection percentage of more than 99.6%.

Progcap

Progcap (Desiderata Impact Ventures Private Limited) is a mission-driven, inclusive financing technology firm working to unlock the transformational impact of millions of micro and small enterprises in the last mile by providing them affordable, customized finance and digitizing their supply chains. Progcap uses a mix of technology and its unique delivery model to underwrite credit and thus provide the under-banked semi-urban and rural retailers in India access to flexible, collateral-free working capital.

Sub-K

Sub-K is a digital finance (Fintech) company that offers affordable, accessible, and scalable financial and payment services to rural/urban areas that have difficulty accessing the traditional financial models. They seek to bridge the digital divide, and create a ‘financially included’ society, through a robust and widespread retail distribution network and in-house Fintech solutions. Sub-K creates a high-tech-high-touch operating infrastructure at the last mile to deliver meaningful financial services through a capital-light model and a wide distribution network.

They also offer savings, credit, remittance, insurance, G2C, and B2C payments as a channel partner for formal financial institutions. Unlike single product FinTechs and exclusive digital platforms, Sub-K’s innovation lies in offering diversified financial services through digital solutions coupled with list mile connectivity. As a result, their services are cost-effective, customer-centric, highly accessible, and crafted according to the needs of the financially and digitally excluded population.

ShopKirana

ShopKirana is a B2B – commerce that started with a vision to empower millions of retailers which connects 1.2 Bn+ population of India in terms of trade. The company is focused on technology and supply chain innovation that aims to empower retailers to be competitive by providing technology, operational expertise, and scale advantage. Idea is to partner with millions of retailers (by becoming part of their supply chain) and making it the biggest and quickest go-to-market channel for products and services. ShopKirana directly works with brands to give them a boost on the demand side and reach to masses with transparency and deep market intelligence.

OkCredit

OkCredit is a part of the Ok network – an ecosystem of apps aimed at digitizing small and medium businesses (SMBs) across India. With technology that is simple and easy to access, the startup is solving various pain points in the everyday functioning of small business owners, be it tracking their accounts, managing staff at their set-up, or the need to go online. Ok network’s first product- OkCredit was launched in 2017 by Harsh Pokharna, Gaurav Kumar, and Aditya Prasad.

OkCredit has given a complete digital makeover to the traditional register book – ‘Bahi/Udhar Khata’ and made the daily bookkeeping task simpler and effective for millions of small businesses. The app not just helps small businesses keep track of credit transactions – both payments and receivables, it sends timely reminders and also makes it easier for them to collect and settle balance amounts quickly. The app has seen more than 20 million downloads.

Business World

Sub-K launches SARTHI, a Digital Finance Platform That Provides Financial Services to India’s Underbanked

Aug 14, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Digital Finance Platform, #Financial Services, #SARTHI, #Sasidhar N. Thumuluri, #Sub-K

Sub-K IMPACT Solutions Ltd. (formerly known as BASIX Sub-K iTransactions Limited), India’s leading fintech company focused on financial inclusion, announced today the launch of a new digital finance platform, Sub-K SARTHI, coinciding with the company’s 10-year anniversary. Aimed at making financial services more accessible and affordable, the new platform enables underbanked customers to unlock credit, insurance, investments, and other financial products.

Sub-K brings financial tools to underserved businesses in India, using a large agent network to reach entrepreneurs in rural areas who lack access to traditional banks. SARTHI will help Sub-K reach even more underserved micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by providing entrepreneurs with all the tools they need to effectively manage and grow their businesses. SARTHI (Seamless Advanced Resourceful Tech-driven Hybrid Interface) is a fintech platform that will offer products such as  MSME credit, digital micro-loan, gold loan, health insurance, and micro-investment. Sub-K aims to expand the product suite to a full range of loan, insurance and investment products.  

Customers will be able to access products on the SARTHI platform through Sub-K’s staff and agents or on their own devices. SARTHI’s programming is integrated with financial service providers and third-party partners to provide customers with more choices and quick processing. In the future, Sub-K plans to enable a complete end-to-end digital journey for its target customers who are traditionally underserved by the formal financial system.

Sub-K MD and CEO, Sasidhar N. Thumuluri says, “We are very pleased to announce the launch of Sub-K SARTHI on our 10th anniversary. This platform marks a major milestone in our digital transformation journey. We genuinely believe that the future is digital, and we are committed to bringing a large number of the excluded population into the mainstream by effectively leveraging the power of fintech. Thanks to our founder’s audacious vision and investors’ confidence and support, we are now more ready than ever to build a world class institution in service of the nation.”

SARTHI was developed with advisory services provided by non-profit Accion through a global partnership between Accion and Mastercard that aims to power micro and small businesses to successfully operate in, and benefit from, the digital economy, leading to greater financial inclusion, economic growth and job creation. Through this partnership, Accion has worked with Sub-K since 2018, helping understand client needs, designing the concept for the platform, and developing operating processes, technology architecture, credit methodology and risk models.  

“Sub-K’s proven commitment to reaching last-mile customers, their expansive reach through their agent network and bank partnerships, and their demonstrated embrace of digital technologies made them an ideal partner for our efforts with Mastercard to help micro businesses benefit from the digital economy. The launch of this platform is an important milestone in that effort. It will ultimately provide more customers and businesses with access to a broader range of timely, convenient financial products to meet their needs,” said Victoria White, Managing Director of Accion Global Advisory Solutions.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy; adoption of digital technologies will bring them into the formal economy enabling access to affordable credit, build operational efficiencies and plug into global supply chain opportunities. Analyses indicate that SMEs can see their revenues increase by up to one-third with such technology adoption.  We’re delighted that our partnership with Accion is supporting the expansion of Sub-K’s efforts. These new initiatives are vital if we are to build a more inclusive digital economy,” said Michael Froman, vice chairman and president, Strategic Growth at Mastercard.

Sub-K is also receiving risk management and marketing support from Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) to ensure that the SARTHI platform can reach the consumers, small businesses, and financial institutions that can benefit from it, with adequate controls in place. Related activities will include the deployment of risk tools, an advanced call centre solution and enhancements to Sub-K’s agent management system.

“With the SARTHI platform, Sub-K’s consistent client-centric approach has once again materialized as innovative services for the underserved. NMI is proud to be both an investor in Sub-K, and through our Technical Assistance facility, a partner in the actual development of the platform,” said Arthur Sletteberg, Managing Director at NMI.