Rural fintech startup, Jai Kisan, receives RBI nod for acquisition of majority stake in Kushal Finnovation Capital Private Limited
Mumbai, August 13th, 2024: Jai Kisan, India’s leading rural fintech startup, has received regulatory approval from the Reserve Bank of India and has acquired a majority shareholding in Kushal Finnovation Capital Private Limited, a registered NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company). With the acquisition of a NBFC as its subsidiary, Jai Kisan will now be able to design and distribute more customized and diverse credit products to its farmer and business customers. Going forward, the firm will not only originate loans but also co-lend in partnership with leading financial institutions including public sector banks in India. Read More
JAI KISAN raises US $30mn in Series A funding led by Mirae Asset with participation from Syngenta Group Ventures, existing investors and others
Mumbai, May 31st, 2021: Rural Fintech Startup Jai Kisan has raised US$ 30mn (INR 217 Crores) in a combination of equity and debt in a Series A round of funding led by Mirae Asset. Syngenta Ventures, existing investors Blume, Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES (NABARD), Prophetic Ventures and Better, other global investors, and prominent HNIs also participated in the round. Blacksoil, Stride Ventures and Trifecta Capital contributed the debt in the round.
Jai Kisan aims to use the proceeds of the fundraise to bring superior talent to build for Bharat, enhance engineering and data science capabilities, expand into new geographies and start building an on-book portfolio. Read More
Rural Fintech startup Jai Kisan raises INR 30 Crores in Pre-Series A from Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES (NABARD), Blume and global financial leaders
Mumbai, June 16th, 2020: Jai Kisan, a Mumbai-based fintech platform for rural emerging markets that facilitates a suite of financial products to rural customers, has closed an INR 30 cr Pre-Series A round of funding led by Arkam Ventures (previously known as Unitary Helion) with participation from NABVENTURES Fund I (backed by NABARD, an apex DFI with AUM of INR 525,000 cr). Jai Kisan is NABVENTURES’ first investment.
The fresh round of fundraising saw participation from existing investors including Blume, Prophetic and Better Capital. The round also saw participation from prominent leaders in finance and agri like an affiliate of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), Rajiv Sahney (New Vernon Capital), Sanjay Mariwala (Omniactive) and others. Read More
Jai Kisan Raises $1.5 Million in Seed Round Led by Blume Ventures
Mumbai, Mar 1st, 2019: Jai Kisan has announced today that it has raised $1.5 million (INR 100 million) in a Seed Round of investments led by Blume Ventures a leading homegrown venture fund, Prophetic Ventures, Better Capital, Astarc Ventures, Harshbeena Zaveri (NRB Bearings), Sanjay Mariwala (OmniActive), and other strategic HNIs and founders of successful technology companies participated in the round.
The Company intends to use the newly raised funds to extend its financing services to more farmers increasing the loan book size, partner with more lending institutions, expand operations across 4 more states, increase its robust network of channel partners, accelerate customer acquisition and build a team positioned to scale.
Jai Kisan is a fintech platform de-risking the flow of capital to rural emerging markets by facilitating and providing financing for income generating purposes. Equipped with an innovative securitization solution and technologically led value proposition for the sellers of products and services it finances, Jai Kisan is able to distribute loans at very low rates (~12% p.a.), quickly (within 7 days) with minimal paperwork for the borrower while generating risk adjusted required rate of returns for the lender. “Most startups operating in rural India believe in disrupting the current status quo. We don't believe economic and social impact can be achieved by displacing the traditional stakeholders who have been operating with decades of experience, gained local goodwill and strongholds, and are socially and economically influential in their local ecosystems.” said Arjun Ahluwalia, founder and CEO of Jai Kisan. “At Jai Kisan, we believe that intending to incentivize rather than disrupting is more effective. Jai Kisan's platform provides a value proposition to each stakeholder by making their existing processes more efficient and leverages them to further create significant social and economic impact for the farmer and the rural community at large.”
“We are delighted to partner with Arjun and the team at Jai Kisan. Innovation in rural lending is the next frontier for financial services. Jai Kisan’s unique rural commerce model coupled with their fintech platform focused on farmers would become the platform of choice for all farmers productive needs,” said Sajid Fazalbhoy who led the deal for Blume Ventures as part of the investment team. Jai Kisan is one of the first investments from Blume’s new Fund III.
Jai Kisan, has currently launched operations in Maharashtra and Karnataka with 25+ channel partner outlets. Its current financial products cater to financing income generating equipment for the farmer community.
There are over 2 billion people in the world that depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. Additionally, 7 out of 10 people in emerging markets focus on agriculture as a primary source of income. With only 1/8 th of agri households availing formal credit and only 2% of outstanding agri loans being funneled towards financing equipment – Jai Kisan is looking to begin with filling a substantial financing gap in the rural finance sector.
Strategic Partnerships
Deploying a highly differentiated and innovative distribution model, Jai Kisan uses a network of technologically enabled channel partner stores while leveraging the existing local vendor networks to source customers more efficiently. Jai Kisan uses highly organized large retail networks (eg. oil and gas dealers), institutional and SME buyers of agri produce and equipment OEMs and dealers to provide services to the hinterland making it convenient for the farmers to access.
“Jai Kisan’s unique model not only provides a value proposition to the farmer but also to other stakeholders in the value chain including agri produce buyers who invest a large amount of their working capital facilities to finance farmers they procure from.” said Sanjay Mariwala, MD of OmniActive Health Technologies, a leading PE backed nutraceutical company. Talking about the team he added, “in India agriculture has not been ‘fashionable’ as not many have tried to understand the potential. Here is someone who has!”
Since launching its operations in March 2018, Jai Kisan has registered and analyzed over 5500 farmers, is present at 25+ channel partner locations across 12 districts in 2 states, signed up 3 lender relationships and onboarded 60+ vendor partners selling 1500+ SKUs on the platform.
Mrs. Catherine Flax (Ex. CMO, J.P. Morgan Global), Mrs. Ketaki Bhagwati (Non-Exec Independent Director at Axis Bank and Bayer CropScience; Ex. IFC) and Mr. Arvind Mahajan (Associate Dean and Presidential Professor at Texas A&M University) have joined the company’s advisory council.
About Jai Kisan
Jai Kisan is a fintech platform de-risking the flow of capital to rural emerging markets by facilitating and providing financing for income generating purposes. Equipped with an innovative securitization solution and technologically led value proposition for the sellers of products and services it finances, Jai Kisan is able to distribute loans at very low rates, quickly with minimal paperwork for the borrower while generating risk adjusted required rate of returns for the lender. Jai Kisan’s fintech platform is complemented by a solid distribution network comprising of aligned channel partners who serve as physical access points to cater to customer’s needs.