Mumbai, 11 November, 2021: India’s largest trade finance platform, Vayana Network, announced the raising of INR 283 crore in Series C funding round. Vayana saw participation from existing and new investors, including Chiratae Ventures, CDC group, Jungle Ventures, March Capital, Marshall Wace and some of the large family offices from India and abroad.
Sharing his thoughts, Ram Iyer, Founder and CEO, Vayana Network said, “Over the last 4 years, we have grown 20x on quarterly financing volumes and have reached USD 8 bn in total financing to date. But more than these numbers, we have always defined our role as enablers who provide access to affordable and convenient finance to every member of the supply chain. We have strongly believed that every segment of the supply chain and for every type of trade, there needs to be a relevant product that allows the business to grow sustainably. Given our strong presence in credit enabling infrastructure such as GST and e-invoicing coupled with the launch of our Good Business Score (GBS), we have managed to reach the smallest of businesses, connecting them to the largest lenders. Our investors Chiratae and Jungle placed trust in us from the beginning and now we have some incredible global financial institutions, development institutions and growth funds strengthening us to accelerate our journey to this goal.”
TC Meenakshi Sundaram, MD and Co-Founder, Chiratae Ventures, which has been one of the earliest investors in Vayana said, “Vayana has been committed to making trade finance easier, accessible and affordable for all businesses in a supply chain, irrespective of size. This single-minded focus has helped them to grow at a rapid pace and become the market leader. Across the globe and especially in India, MSMEs play the crucial role of being growth engines of an economy; despite which they suffer from delayed payments and lack of access to low-cost formal sources of finance. Vayana not only facilitates access but has worked towards making MSMEs credit ready through its GST compliance and analytics business. In Vayana, we have found the right partner to provide a solution for cash flow based lending, while simultaneously helping small businesses grow sustainably.”
According to Amit Rajpal, Chief Executive Officer Asia and Portfolio Manager of Marshall Wace, “The supply chain industry in India is at a place that requires new-age startups, like Vayana, that build key financial infrastructure for all stakeholders to easily operate with transparency and fluidity.”
Vayana creates supply chain finance programs that help in lowering the credit costs by over 50% and improving the coverage by 100%. Vayana’s compliance business which consists of GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) services holds over 20% market share of the e-invoicing in India. The analytics business (GBS) helps customers to monitor the health of their business. Vayana recently received in-principle approval to set up an ITFS platform at the GIFT City (Gujarat).
Iyer added, “Our vision is to create an ecosystem where financing is embedded in a transaction and becomes an almost invisible part of any B2B trade – as simple as swiping a credit card. With our existing and upcoming suite of products, we will solve related challenges such as market discovery, effortless compliance and monitoring, helping every business in a supply chain operate at its best.”
