Introduction
Financial inclusion is an important part of India’s development and the announcement of Arya’s $21m Series B funding round led by Quona is a welcome move.
The funds will boost financial inclusion among India’s farmers and create innovative products and services tailored to their needs. This fundraising round is a testament to the growing investor interest in the financial technology and its potential to drive meaningful social and economic change.
Overview of Quona
Quona is a venture capital firm that provides capital and expertise to businesses driving financial inclusion in emerging markets. Quona was founded in 2016 to accelerate economic opportunity by investing in companies the company believes can bring innovations to underserved populations worldwide. By building robust capital markets, Quona has enabled customers of its portfolio companies to benefit from access to secure, affordable and diverse financial services.
Quona has assembled a global investment portfolio covering a wide range of innovative products and services to drive financial inclusion. These range from digital savings accounts at point-of-sale systems that significantly reduce costs for unbanked customers, mobile banking platforms for rural customers, microfinance services for small businesses and installment credit scoring systems that create more equitable access to borrowing. By applying its industry expertise, technological capabilities and operational experience, Quona is helping tech firms build inclusive digital ecosystems that change how people interact with their finances including underbanked farmers in India.
Overview of Arya
Arya is a leading Indian fintech startup in the agricultural and rural banking. Founded in 2019, Arya has been leveraging technology to increase access to financial services for India’s 300 million small and marginal farmers. The startup has quickly become a leader in creating innovative solutions to help farmers have improved access to quality financial services such as credit and insurance.
To fuel its growth, Arya recently secured $21m in a Quona-led Series B round of funding. This funding round will be used to further Arya’s efforts to expand its customer base, build more sustainable models and finance projects related to financial inclusion and livelihood development of rural households.
The startup’s co-founder Rituparna Sengupta envisions “bridging the gaps between high demand sectors such as agriculture and disruptive new technologies like AI and Machine Learning while enabling seamless payments on cryptocurrencies”. With its latest round of funding from Quona Capital, Renaissance Venture Capital and Omidyar Network India Advisors, Arya is well-positioned to become an undisputed leader for providing financial solutions for rural India.
Arya banks $21m in Quona-led Series B to boost financial inclusion for India’s farmers
Arya has secured a $21 million Series B funding, led by Quona, a global venture investor firm. The funding round saw participation from existing investors including Endiya Partners and SRI Capital and new investors such as Falcon Edge Capital, Falcon Edge Growth and Daunou investments.
This new round of funding brings total raised for Arya to date to $32 million.
Overview of Series B funding
Quona Capital led the Series B funding of Arya with contributions from Elevar Equity, Omidyar Network India, and Ankur Capital. The company raised $21 million to increase their financial inclusion services to the farmers of India.
The venture capital funding round is expected to strengthen Arya’s offering of providing digital credit through its P2P loan-matching platform and significantly expand its wealth management services for smallholder farmers in rural India. The capital will also accelerate growth opportunities in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Brazil.
As part of the financing, Mr. Rajat Mehrotra from Quona, Ms Maryna Doytch from Elevar Equity and Mr Nimish Pandey from Omidyar Network India have joined Arya’s board of directors along with several other notable investors. As per Mr Alok Mittal (Co-founder & CEO), “This investment validates our impressive track record so far and will enable us to deliver on our mission to bring financial access for our customers in rural areas”.
Arya aims to use this capital infusion to expedite loan disbursement processes while boosting customer experience by utilizing innovative digital technologies such as machine learning models, sensor data capture & artificial intelligence applications to make better credit decisions based on real-time inputs across borrower profiles and regions.
Investors involved in Series B
The Series B funding round was led by Quona Capital with participation from several high profile venture capital (VC) firms including returning investors Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital and Mable Growth. It also witnessed notable new investors Purvi Capital, Better Capital and Flourish Ventures. This brings Arya’s total funding to date to $34 million.
Arya’s focus on financial inclusion for farmers has become even more vital amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has particularly impacted the agricultural sector in India. The new financing will bolster product development and drive market expansion for Arya’s key products such as agricultural loans, savings accounts, crop insurance, agricultural input supply chain services and other partner products such as credit bureau access for customers without banking history.
Impact of Funding
The Series B funding of Arya, valued at $21 million, puts the company in a much better position to expand financial inclusion for India’s farmers.
The involvement of the Quona Capital in the Series B funding for Arya will likely have a tremendous impact on the company, allowing it to make the necessary investments in technology and products to better serve rural India.
This article will explore all the potential impacts of the Series B funding for Arya.
How the funding will help Arya
The funding from Quona-led Series B funding round will enable Arya to accelerate its mission of democratizing access to finance, wealth management and other financial services to India’s farmers. Specifically, the investment is intended to expand the depth and breadth of its product service offerings, focusing on leveraging technology solutions including artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
These capabilities will assist with developing and launching new products such as modernized agricultural loan systems and micro-insurance products to help farmers protect their agricultural assets. Furthermore, this investment will enable Arya to participate in conversations advocating for pro-farmer initiatives and legislative policy changes including tax credit benefits for smallholder farmers.
Most importantly, this long-term investment reinforces Quona’s commitment to advancing financial inclusion by creating a platform from which all stakeholders in the agritech space can benefit from Arya’s success in India. The company’s goal is ambitious; by utilizing all available resources at our disposal, this capital injection is meant to empower developments that move money closer to India’s farmers who are defined as populations without sufficient banking infrastructure or digital accesses such as those living in rural areas or other areas where banking access is difficult or non-existent. With the capital injection associated with this Series B investment round, we aim to provide solutions and bridge the rural/urban divide by enabling more sustainable livelihood opportunities among these underserved communities.
How the funding will help India’s farmers
For India’s farmers, the Arya’s $21m Serie B funding is a major boost that will make it easier to access finance to expand their operations. The focus is on improving financial inclusion, and with this investment, subject matter experts at Quona Capital, who lead the investment campaign, are committed to helping provide better and more efficient access to capital for India’s farming population.
The funding allows Arya to use technology-first approach towards resolving the problems farmers face – lack of access to credit and a shortage of information about sources available. This investment is targeted at providing easy access to digital solutions for Indian farmers, including updating accounts payable processes and digitizing records. Further in line with this push for financial inclusion, the newly obtained Co-op Banks will work more collaboratively and onboard more branches required for catering smallholder needs.
In addition, this financing will bring innovation towards providing loans tailored specifically for smallholders, allowing them to build long-term relationships while taking out necessary loans without bearing unnecessary burden interest. By improving distribution and usage data via usage of analytics tools such as machine learning that can be used by lenders enabling better assessment strategies thus making lending easier and smoother process further improving credit availability mechanisms resulting in an overall upward spike in revenue generated by both lenders as well as customers alike benefiting outstandingly from it all.
Conclusion
Arya’s Series B round of funding, which Quona Capital led, is projected to significantly impact the lives of farmers in India by promoting digital financial inclusion in the agricultural sector.
This investment will allow Arya to expand the reach of digital financial services to rural areas, empowering farmers and accelerating their digital financial journey.
This article has covered all the details of the series B round and its projected impact on the rural agricultural sector in India.
Summary of the article
Arya, a Bangalore-based startup focused on India’s agricultural sector, has raised US$ 21 million in Series B funding led by Quona Capital. In addition to Quona, the round was backed by existing investors- Chirate Ventures and LGT Lightstone Silicon Valley. This latest fund raise will help Arya provide financial services to India’s farmers and small businesses in rural areas of the country. These funds are expected to be used to develop and improve the firm’s proprietary biometric verification platform.
The company aims to make access to financial services easier for underbanked people and entrepreneurs in rural India by leveraging advanced biometrics with machine learning and AI technology. The platform is powered by biometric authentication that offers secure, efficient, and affordable banking solutions at scale for a large user base living far from city centers.
The fresh funding will be used by Arya for furthering its technology capabilities with enhancements such as improved feature extraction from raw data, new identity verification methods (e.g., voice recognition), and better fraud detection features such as facial recognition . This should enable more secure transactions for customers using its digital wallet system (called Wallet), cross-border remittances (called Elixir), interest-bearing accounts (called Citizen) credit loans (called Mnemonic). With these products, Arya seeks to bring low cost financial services in the rural parts of India that lack infrastructure or basic banking facilities.
Future outlook
Arya is focused on accelerating its technology-driven approach to drive deeper financial inclusion for India’s large agricultural population. The company has already established the groundwork for farmers to access capital conveniently and receive timely payment through its digital platform, removing intermediaries and eliminating discrepancies. In addition, the more accessible financial products offered on the Arya platform are designed to give farmers better control over their cash flow, minimizing their need to take out high-interest debt.
Moving forward, Arya plans to use its Series B funds to expand its reach across India and into tier II and tier III cities and towns, allowing it to make a bigger impact by providing credit access and risk mitigation services in more places. Additionally, the funds will go towards launching additional capital products such as crop insurance and working capital loans that are tailored towards meeting the needs of India’s agricultural sector. In doing so, Arya will be able to empower smallholder farmers with greater economic freedom and aid their transition from informal into formal financial channels.
tags = Arya, anks $21m, Quona, India’s farmers, Delhi-based, India’s smallholder grain farmers, arya south asia 46m 14msinghtechcrunch, curb food waste, Ganesh Rengaswamy
