U GRO Capital and Kinara Capital Announce Co-Origination Partnership

by Suman Gupta

• Kinara Capital connects its platform with U GRO Capital’s GRO X-stream platform

• U GRO commits to extend INR 100 Crores in Collateral-Free Loans to MSMEs

Mumbai, October 13, 2021: U GRO Capital, a listed, small business lending MSME focused fintech platform, and Kinara Capital, a fast-growing fintech, today announced a strategic co-origination partnership to offer collateral-free business loans to small business entrepreneurs in India. Together, both companies plan to disburse INR 100 crores by the end of FY2022 to MSMEs in Manufacturing, Trading and Services sectors.

The co-origination arrangement will leverage U GRO’s analytical data driven decisioning and integration through APIs with the smart technology platform of Kinara Capital. With years of AI/ML based decisioning and underwriting experience, Kinara Capital can take an MSME entrepreneur from loan application to loan disbursement within 24-hours. MSMEs across 300+ pin codes in Tier 1-3 cities will benefit from this partnership where Kinara is presently operating in the urban, semi-urban and peri-urban areas of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and UT Puducherry.

The collaboration is being made possible by U GRO Capital’s Gro X-stream platform, which is an API-driven and highly customizable technology platform for FinTechs, Payment Platforms, NBFCs, NeoBanks, Market places and other digital platforms. Through this platform, U GRO coordinates MSME loans and also does Co-lending with large Banks & Financial Institutions. The company has signed 15+ co-origination partnerships with multiple partners.

Together, U GRO Capital and Kinara Capital aim to ease access to formal credit for hundreds of small business entrepreneurs who need financing for business growth.

Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, U GRO Capital said, “We are excited to enter into a partnership with Kinara Capital, towards our vision of solving the unsolved MSME credit gap. It is our belief that co-origination with FinTech  is one of the most effective routes to achieve the financial inclusion of MSMEs, which has prompted us to design our technology platform ‘Gro X-stream’, allowing essential collaborations like this to fructify. We look forward to a long term relationship with Kinara Capital and work towards our common aim to support more MSMEs in their bid to grow.”

Hardika Shah, Founder and CEO, Kinara Capital said, “We are delighted to work with U GRO Capital as they resonate our focus on supporting India’s small business entrepreneurs. As a partner, U GRO has demonstrated equal parts commitment with its financing and technology to join us in easing credit flow to the MSME sector. This instantly impacts both local and national economies, and the job creation is essential as businesses continue to rebuild and grow this year.”

The co-origination partnership is aimed at keeping the process seamless for the entrepreneurs. MSMEs will need to apply only once directly with Kinara Capital and can start the process online, by phone or in-person with a Kinara representative. Once approved, the loan sanction documents will include the names of both U GRO Capital and Kinara Capital. The customer experience will continue to be managed by Kinara Capital which provides complete support in vernacular and offers additional support such as a free digital workshop series with business tips for growth.

Available financing for MSMEs will range from INR 1 lakh to INR 30 lakhs with tenure ranging from 12-60 months. Financing can be availed for Working Capital, Asset Purchase directly from Kinara Capital and women-led businesses receive an automatic, upfront discount with the HerVikas program.

Kinara has 110 branches across 6 states and has provided over 60,000 collateral-free loans to small business entrepreneurs. The social impact of Kinara’s financial inclusion commitment has generated over INR 700 crores in incremental income for the entrepreneurs and supported over 250,000 jobs across local economies in India.

U GRO Capital currently has 34 branches across 9 states. It aims to expand the branch network to 100 by FY2022 and intends to reach 250,000 MSMEs in the coming 4 financial years.

About U GRO Capital Ltd.: U GRO Capital limited is a listed (NSE, BSE), MSME lending fintech platform. U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need with its omnichannel distribution model combining physical and digital journey of the customer. The Company envisions to spearhead India’s transition of MSME lending market to the new age of on-tap financing. It uses the emerging Data Tripod of GST, Banking and Bureau coupled with its sectoral analysis to solve the problem of credit for small businesses.

U GRO aspires to serve one million small businesses with an asset book of 1% of outstanding MSME credit of India as its first milestone.

Technology underpins every aspect of U GRO’s lending process, from API integrations, sectoral and sub-sectoral statistical scorecards, state-of-the-art AI/ML credit underwriting engine combining bank, bureau and GST statement analysers, automated policy approvals, and machine learning OCR technology. Company’s GRO Extreme platform empowers fintech and other institutional platforms to deepen their distribution reach through a plug and play API driven seamless integration with U GRO. The company has developed full tech stack to fully automate the complete life cycle of a loan right from origination to collection during the entire customer journey.

The Company has raised ~INR 2500 crore of equity & debt capital from marquee Private Equity Investors, Family Offices, Banks and other Financial Institutions over the last 3 years.

About Kinara Capital:Kinara Capital is a fast-growing fintech propelling financial inclusion of small business entrepreneurs. Kinara boasts a women-majority management team and is globally recognized for its innovative approach to financial inclusion. Kinara Capital is ranked among the ‘Top 100 High-Growth Companies in Asia-Pacific’ by the Financial Times and named among the leading companies as ‘India’s Growth Champions’ by the Economic Times. Recognized as a Systemically Important Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) by the Reserve Bank of India, Kinara Capital is a debt listed entity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Headquartered in Bangalore, Kinara Capital has 110 branches serving MSMEs in 300+ pincodes in India. Click here for more informationhttp://kinaracapital.comand follow us on Twitter @KinaraCapital

This press release may contain projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance. These statements are only predictions and reflect our current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risk and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. Given business risks and uncertainties, undue reliance on these forward-looking statements should not be placed. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements.