Solv, a business-to-business digital marketplace for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has raised $40 million (Rs 300 crore) in its Series A funding round led by Japan’s SBI Holdings.
SC Ventures, the corporate venture capital firm of Standard Chartered Bank, and the company’s incubator and existing investor, also participated in this round. The startup has raised $80 million in funding so far, the company said in a statement.
Solv will mainly use the newly-infused capital to launch additional high-margin product categories and expand to over 300 cities in India. The fresh funding will also drive expansion of BNPL (buy-now-pay-later) loans, particularly in the new-to-credit segment.
“In a year ravaged by covid-19, Solv has been able to establish itself as a dependable partner to over 220,000 MSMEs. The learnings in India and the resultant development in product, technology and platform is enabling us to create workable models for MSMEs in other geographies across the world,” said Amit Bansal, chief executive officer of Solv. Bansal was the founder and CEO of video commerce platform EZMall, backed by Essel Group before joining the startup in June 2021.
Solv works with medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) connecting buyers to verified sellers on its platform, apart from providing on-demand working capital and term loans to these businesses.
Present in more than 200 cities in India and servicing over 19,000 pin codes within over 18 months of its commercial launch, Solv claims to have clocked over $260 million GMV (gross merchandise value) run-rate in the first half of 2022 with 60% average repeated purchases.
“Investment in Solv is one of our largest investments in the region. We are confident that the company will become a global technology powerhouse and play a defining role in turbo-charging the growth of underserved MSMEs,” said Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO at SBI Holdings.
Established in 1999, the SBI Group has been providing financial services in a broad range of fields including securities, banking and insurance. In addition to its financial services business, the entity also has an asset management arm, focusing on investment in venture companies.
Startups in the broader fintech space have been attracting both early stage and growth funding in recent weeks despite the liquidity squeeze in the market.
Earlier in June, MSME fintech lender FlexiLoans and small business credit platform Kissht raised significant growth capital of $90 million and $80 million respectively.
Prior to that, fintech unicorn Slice raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by existing investor Tiger Global Management.
