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 NairChairman, CIBIL and Sandeep Tandon, Co-Founder, Freecharge. 9Unicorns and ZNL Growth Fund also participated in the round alongside Beams.

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

“We are delighted 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 SMEs/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 Agarwalmanaging partner and co-founder, Beams.

Supply chain financing is the need of the hour with many businesses facing a cash flow crisis and disorganized fundraising processes. Progcap bridges the gap between distributors and retailers through specialized finance, payments and technology. To date, Progcap has disbursed more than $1 billion in loans and has grown 4X annually. It has worked with over 700,000 SMEs.

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 the banking network and open doors to the group’s portfolio of 250+ startups for partnership, collaboration and potential acquisition opportunities for Progcap.

“We are excited to join forces with the Beams team to address challenges MSME/SMBs face in their financing needs. Beams has built an interesting value-add strategy towards companies and we look forward to working with them on problems solved by Progcap ,” said Pallavi Shrivastava, Co-Founder, Progcap.