Bengaluru-based Avanti Finance, NBFC focused on financial inclusion, has secured $24 million equity funding from Rabo Partnerships, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Rabobank Group focused on financial inclusion and rural development and IDH Farmfit Fund.
Existing investors Oikocredit and NRJN Trust also participated in the fundraise. The investment will support Avanti’s mission of providing frictionless, affordable and hyperlocal credit products to smallholder farmers in India, enabling them to build sustainable livelihoods, it said.
Rahul Gupta, CEO of Avanti Finance said, “This investment will support ongoing investments in our deep tech platform to develop fit-for-purpose hyperlocal credit products, automated data & social signals driven underwriting for data-dark customers, amplify our partnership network and accelerate co-lending programs with other financial institutions for capital efficiency.”
Digital delivery model
The Avanti team has done a ton of heavy lifting to establish a digital delivery model with our unique paperless, presenceless & cashless approach, served 275K households, disbursed over 1,300 crore with a lean team of only 65 employees and zero proprietary branches, showcasing the power of digital & leveraging existing community-based networks, he added.
Avanti said it co-created more than 180 customised loan products to cater to different types of livelihood streams and income flows. Avanti Finance says it currently has 75 mission-aligned partners including social enterprises, financial institutions, business correspondents, agri-tech players, and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) covering 24 States and appx 300 districts in India.
The investment in Avanti is in line with Rabo Partnerships’ “smallholder ecosystem” strategy, which focuses on providing data-driven finance solutions to smallholder farmers through local co-operatives and service providers, said the company.