Kinara Capital, a leading socially responsible fintech company driving MSME financial inclusion, announced today that it has raised INR 52 billion from the Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) to support women entrepreneurs in India. This sustainable mutual fund is paid out to an estimated over 2,500 women-owned small businesses through Kinara Capital’s established HerVikas loan program. The expected impact of the partnership between IIX and Kinara Capital will generate an additional INR 320 billion income for women entrepreneurs. The IIX Women’s Livelihood Bond Series investment in our HerVikas program brings new impetus to the need for financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs. Empowering women has a strong impact on improving the quality of life for families and achieving gender parity can add 27% to India’s GDP, said Hardika Shah, founder and CEO of Kinara Capital. IIX is a pioneer in gender lens investing and we are very honored to be part of its ecosystem to make sustainable impact by promoting women entrepreneurs.

Kinara Capital’s HerVikas program enables your progress with an automatic 1% upfront discount on interest costs for fast, security-free business loans ranging from INR 1 lakh to 30 lakh. Kinara effectively addresses the unfair credit gap and related systemic problems by providing women entrepreneurs with access to formal credit, industry knowledge and personalized customer service. IIX CEO and Founder Professor Durreen Shahnaz said: After supporting Kinara in one of their first rounds of capital, and having watched the company steadily and effectively for nearly a decade, we are proud to be able to use the proceeds for the third tranche of Women’s Livelihood Bond Series. At a time when COVID-19 has caused governments, investors and corporations to turn inward, leaving millions of underserved women behind, women-run companies like Kinara Capital are leading COVID resilience from the ground up by promoting financial inclusion Accelerate and empower women entrepreneurs to be part of the recovery solution. IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond Series does what no one else dares by appreciating women and making them part of the global financial system. But we don’t stop there. We’ll keep pushing the boundaries by building the Women’s Livelihood Bond Series so that we can create truly systemic change that will outlast any pandemic.

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The Women’s Livelihood Bond 3 (WLB3) is part of the US $ 150 million Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB Series), a suite of innovative bonds that provide sustainable livelihoods for over 3 million women in developing countries. The WLB3 supports women-centric companies in India, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines that directly support women in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, recovering from it or rebuilding their livelihoods. Women-owned businesses account for around 20% of India’s over 60 million MSMEs, but the majority of them remain in the micro-category. Kinara ensures a biased risk assessment of women entrepreneurs with data-driven credit decisions. Not only does Kinara fill the credit gap with safety-free loans, but it also combats systemic biases against women by contradicting common practices such as: B. requesting the presence of a male relative to apply for a loan. Kinara also hosts customer meetings and digital workshop series with useful tips and information in local languages ​​to help women entrepreneurs scale their businesses. Kinara Capital’s HerVikas discounted loan program for women owned MSMEs is available in over 90 cities in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and UT Puducherry.