Solv, a Business-to-Business (B2B) digital marketplace for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has raised $40 million in a Series A funding round led by SBI Holdings. (headquartered in Japan). The round also saw participation from SC Ventures, which has been an incubator and early-stage investor of Solv. This round of fund-raise takes Solv’s total funding to nearly $80 million.

Solv will use the funds to launch additional high-margin product categories and expand to more than 300 cities in India. The fresh funding will also drive the expansion of BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) loans, particularly in the NTC (New-To-Credit) segment. Solv also plans to expand its anchor-led retailer finance to an additional 50,000 retailers.

Becoming a dominant B2B player

Amit Bansal, CEO, Solv, said, “This strategic partnership and investment will give us significant tailwinds and help us become a dominant B2B player over the next 12-18 months. At Solv, we are passionate about improving the livelihoods of millions of underserved MSMEs in India and globally.”

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Within 18 months of launch in India, Solv claims have become India’s fastest-growing B2B marketplace, with a 2,20,000 know your customer (KYC)-verified MSMEs base and 10 times growth of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) with 60 per cent repeats.

Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO, SBI Holdings, said, “We are excited to lead Solv’s Series A fundraise, one of our largest investments in the region. We are confident that Solv will become a global technology powerhouse and play a defining role in turbo-charging the growth of underserved MSMEs.”

Solv is building a global tech stack from India to help expand operations in multiple countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. The company targets half a billion-dollar GMV run-rate and positive unit economics by the exit of December 2022, from the India market alone.

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