SarvaGram, a rural household-focused lending and distribution platform, has raised $35 million in a series C funding round led by Elevar Equity, with participation from Elevation Capital, Temasek, and TVS Capital Funds.
In February 2021, the startup raised $10.5 million as part of its Series B round from Elevation Capital and Elevar Equity. It intends to use the raised capital 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.
It also plans to advance its data analytics capabilities to enhance customer experience and offerings and widen the customer funnel.
Founded in 2019 by veteran rural bankers Utpal Isser and Sameer Mishra, SarvaGram provides customised financial and capacity-enhancing products to unlock the potential of an increasingly aspirational rural India — a target market of over 80 million households.
The startup claims it operates out of eight hubs, 50+ outlets across four States, and has 250+ franchise partners covering 8,000+ villages.
Additionally, the company aims to expand its distribution network by adding 75 more outlets (to reach 125) by the end of FY2024.
Utpal Isser, Co-Founder, MD & CEO, SarvaGram, said, “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.”
Jyotsna Krishnan, Managing Partner, Elevar Equity, said, “Having partnered with several founders from scratch to help build scale in delivering essential services, we are most excited about the fact that SarvaGram is at the cusp of two critical trends. This round provides aligned growth capital to help the company execute to their scale ambitions after successfully demonstrating robust financial margins in the business model.”
Anuradha Ramachandran, Managing Partner, TVS Capital Funds said, “We found the strong experience of the founders, the focus of SarvaGram on the underserved rural middle-class households and the increasing availability of data which makes for better underwriting, a differentiated story. Their flexible approach of providing multiple products to their customers will benefit over 80 million rural households.”
Source @Indianstartupnews
