World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) said it is mulling investment of $8 million (Rs 59.4 crore)
in supply chain financing platform Vayana Network Services Pvt Ltd.
The investment will help Vayana strengthen its operation across technology network to offer supply chain financing solutions, IFC said.
This comes just months after Vayana raised Rs 283 crore in a Series C funding round led by venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures and the UK development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor CDC Group in November last year.
Jungle Ventures, March Capital, Marshall Wace and some large family offices from India and abroad had also participated in the funding round.
The company has been catering to small micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the long tail of the supply chains. It also claims to be one of the largest goods and services tax (GST) providers in the country and facilitates GST, e-way bills, e-invoices for many corporates and SMEs. Vayana added its network spans across 600 Indian cities.
In November last year, Vayana claimed to have financed more than $8 billion, including more than $1 billion of finance, through business-to-business (B2B) card flows to over 22,000 MSMEs for more than 1,000 supply chains in 25 different sectors.
It connects more than 1,000 corporates and their trade ecosystems to the digital arena and offers affordable access to credit for their payables and receivables, the company added.
IFC has an active LP (limited partner) portfolio in India. It also makes direct private equity (PE) investments and also lends to companies.
In India, IFC’s commitments for the fiscal year ending June 2021 stood at $1.7 billion, marking 51% from last year. India, as a country, is IFC’s largest client globally.