Beams Fintech Fund backs supply chain finance company Progcap

Beams Fintech Fund, India’s first growth-stage fintech fund, has invested in the Series C round of Progcap, a leading supply chain finance company. Beams has invested alongside Google, Creations, Tiger and Sequoia in this round. Other investors in this company include GrowX, MV Nair, Chairman, CIBIL and Sandeep Tandon, Co-founder, Freecharge. 9Unicorns and ZNL Growth Fund also participated in the round along with Beams.

Founded in 2017 by Pallavi Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra, Progcap is revolutionising the way financial credit is delivered to small and medium retailers of the Indian retail economy. Having worked at global organisations such as the World Bank and IFC, Pallavi has a nuanced understanding of how innovative financing structures can be used to propel the growth of underserved businesses and how this can be applied in the Indian context. On the other hand, Himanshu comes with rich experience in supply chain finance, having built the supply chain finance portfolio at Standard Chartered Bank.

“We are pleased to have backed Pallavi and Himanshu, building one of the fastest growing and disruptive supply chain finance platforms in the country. Supply chain is a deep problem in India with a credit gap of more than $300 billion and SME/MSMEs require access to capital through innovative financing solutions. We are excited to work with Pallavi and Himanshu on building the future of supply chain finance and payments in India,” said Sagar Agarvwal, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Beams.

Supply chain finance is the need of the hour with many companies facing a cash flow crunch and unorganised collection processes. Progcap is bridging the gap between distributors and retailers through specialised finance, payments and technology. Till date, Progcap has disbursed more than $1 billion in loans and has grown 4X annually. It has worked with over 700,000 SMBs.

Beams Fintech Fund’s ecosystem and network of Limited Partners (LPs), which includes leading banks and NBFCs, will look to cross pollinate with Progcap. Beams will facilitate access to its banking network and open doors to its group’s portfolio of 250+ startups for partnerships, collaboration, and potential acquisition opportunities for Progcap.

“We are excited to join hands with the Beams team to solve challenges faced by MSMEs/SMEs in their financing requirements. Beams has built an interesting value add strategy towards companies and we are looking forward to working together with them on problems being solved by Progcap,” said Pallavi Shrivastava, Co-founder, Progcap.