Other investors that participated in the round were Elevation Capital, Temasek and TVS Capital Funds, according to a statement.
The company last raised $10 million in its Series B round in February 2021, led by Elevation Capital and Elevar Equity. The Mumbai-based startup operates a data science-enabled platform that offers users personal loans, gold loans, consumer durable loans, farm loans and business loans.
SarvaGram also plans to launch durables commerce loans, equipment commerce, insurance and other investment solutions, according to its website. It currently claims a target market of over 80 million households in rural India.
“Their (SarvaGram’s) lending offering is unique and creates the foundation to offer a range of solutions (unlike the urban salaried individual with a payslip, assessing income for a rural borrower is tricky) given multiple income streams, variability in agricultural earnings, and limited paper trails. While collateral may be available, the documentation is non-standardised,” said Mridul Arora, partner, Elevation Capital.
Arora added that SarvaGram currently has assets under management worth Rs 275 crore (about $33.2 million).
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SarvaGram conducts business out of eight hubs and over 50 outlets across four states, and has over 250 franchise partners covering more than 8,000 villages. With the fresh capital infusion, it aims to add 75 more outlets in FY24.
It also plans to grow its on-ground franchisees, SarvaMitra, three-fold across various states.
SarvaGram was founded by banking industry veterans Isser and Sameer Mishra in 2019. Isser headed rural business for ICICI Bank, where he worked for over 18 years. Mishra’s previous professional experience was spread across Bank of India, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Fullerton India and Adani Capital.
Other venture-backed startups in the rural lending space include Mumbai-based NeoGrowth, Gurugram-based Aye Finance and Ahmedabad-based LendingKart.
Fintech startup SarvaGram Solutions has raised $35 million (about Rs 290 crore) in a funding round from a clutch of investors including Elevar Equity, Elevation Capital, Temasek and TVS Capital Funds. SarvaGram provides a range of customised financial and capacity-enhancing products to unlock the potential of aspirational rural India.
It closed its Series B round at $10 million in February 2021, which was led by Elevation Capital and Elevar Equity.
The company announced “close of its Series C round at $35 million. Investors in this round include Elevar Equity, Elevation Capital, Temasek and TVS Capital Funds, with Elevar Equity being the largest investor in the company.”
With this funding round, SarvaGram plans to expand its distribution network by adding 75 outlets (to reach 125) by the end of financial year FY2024.
“It also plans to expand its on-ground franchisees -known as ‘SarvaMitra’ – to 3X of the current strength across different states in India. The funds would also be deployed towards strengthening the technology layer – both in terms of hiring tech talent and solidifying SarvaGram’s existing tech stack – to support and enhance business operations,” the company said in a statement.
It takes a 360-degree view of rural households as cohesive economic units and applies data-driven intelligence to assess their overall potential – including an in-depth understanding of their ground reality, balance sheets and multiple income streams.
“The fundraise will boost our mission of putting more power in the hands of rural households by enhancing our technology platform, strengthening the data analytics layer apart from growing our distribution and adding on-ground human capacity,” SarvaGram co-founder, MD and CEO Utpal Isser said.
Headquartered in Mumbai, SarvaGram currently operates out of 8 hubs, over 50 outlets across 4 states. The company claims to have more than 250 franchise partners covering 8,000 villages.
Elevar Equity Managing Partner Jyotsna Krishnan said SarvaGram is at the cusp of two critical trends which include the inflection point in rural markets as demonstrated by growing economic activity and aspirations seen across rural households.
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