Flourish Ventures, which counts Indian fintech startups Indifi and ApnaKlub in its portfolio, has secured a new commitment of $350 million for its evergreen early-stage global venture capital fund.
Flourish, whose only limited partner is eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, said the fresh funding comes on top of the initial $200 million in portfolio investments and $300 million in capital that Flourish secured at the time of its spinout from Omidyar Network in 2019.
“Now, with $850 million under management, we are building towards a permanent capital base while doubling down on fintech investments in the US and across Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to build a more fair financial system,” the VC firm said in a statement.
San Francisco, California-based Flourish focuses on themes such as digital banking, embedded finance, infrastructure, insurtech, and regtech. It has made 71 fintech investments globally since inception. Its portfolio includes seven unicorns, or startups with a valuation of at least $1 billion. These include US digital bank Chime and Africa's Flutterwave.
In India, the VC firm has invested in more than a dozen fintech companies. These include SME digital lender Indifi, insurtech startup AffordPlan, B2B platform ApnaKlub, and cash flow management platform CredFlow. Its other India portfolio companies include GramCover, Kaleidofin, Scripbox, M2P Fintech and Vistaar Finance.
Flourish said that across India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, one of its main theses is that digital credit innovations have the potential to expand access to formal credit.
Indifi, for instance, was an early pioneer of SME digital lending in India and disbursed more than 73,000 loans across 400 cities, for a total value close to $500 million, Flourish said.
The VC firm said that through fintech companies like Indifi, total digital credit in India surpassed $200 billion in 2022, representing nearly 15% of total lending there. In parallel, India’s “credit-unserved” population decreased from 67% to 50% between 2017-2021, it said.
Citing another example, Flourish said ApnaKlub also targets underserved markets and applies new financial technologies. Across rural India, corner shops using ApnaKlub’s app now have access to more than 1,000 products offered by 300 brands with 55% reporting an increase in their store earnings, Flourish said.
“The work of our portfolio companies has helped improve the financial well-being of more than 250 million people and businesses worldwide,” it said. “However, we realize there is still plenty more to be done – especially in light of the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic, global conflicts, and climate shocks that are causing alarming increases in household vulnerability.”