Rural fintech startup Navadhan raises $1.5 Mn in seed round

Rural-fintech startup Navadhan has raised $1.5 million in a seed round led by Varanium NexGen, a fintech focused fund. Existing investor Anicut Capital co-led the round while Gemba Capital also participated.

The startup previously raised pre-seed funding from Anicut, BOPA, Flowstate, and notable angels such as Prasanna Rao (Arya.ag) and Sarah Djari (Impact Fintech PE). Navadhan has now raised a cumulative funding of $16 million in equity and debt lines.

According to Navadhan, the funds will be used to expand and enhance its AceN Tech platform. 

Founded by Nitin Agrawal, Vijay Haswani, Anirudh Ramakuru and Amit Biswal, Navadhan serves as a bridge between rural small businesses (MSMEs) and NBFCs and Banks, facilitating seamless connections. With a network of 15 lenders, including Ugro, Vivriti, Northern Arc, Caspian, Unitus, and TruCap, Navadhan claims to have enrolled over 2 lakh customers and disbursed over Rs 100 crore.

Varanium NexGen invests in fintech startups with early revenues. Its services include portfolio management and advisory, alternate investment and other offshore products. Its portfolio companies include EaseBuzz, Riskcovery, GetVantage, DataSutram and FinVu among others. Payments infrastructure startup Easebuzz is in advanced stages of talks to raise $15-20 million in a new round. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development last week.