Lending firm SarvaGram raises $35 million in series C round led by Elevar Equity

Lending and distribution platform SarvaGram has announced the close of its Series C round at $35 million from Elevar Equity, Elevation Capital, Temasek and TVS Capital Funds.

With this funding round, SarvaGram plans to expand its distribution network by adding 75 more outlets (to reach 125) by the end of FY 2024.

It also plans to expand its on-ground franchisees -known as ‘SarvaMitra’ -to three times of the current strength across different states in India, the firm said in a prepared statement on January 3.

The funds would also be deployed towards strengthening the technology layer -both in terms of hiring tech talent and solidifying SarvaGram’s existing tech stack -to support and enhance business operations.

"Additionally, the company plans to advance its data analytics capabilities with the aim of enhancing customer experience and offerings, along with widening the customer funnel", the statement said.

Founded by banking industry veterans Utpal Isser and Sameer Mishra in 2019, SarvaGram facilitates access to productivity enhancement tools such as loans, farm mechanisation services and risk mitigation services.

"Having successfully executed our household-centric hypothesis across tens of thousands of rural households, we now understand our customers much better. The fundraise will boost our mission of putting more power in the hands of rural households by enhancing our technology platform, strengthening the data analytics layer apart from growing our distribution and adding on-ground human capacity, " Isser said.

SarvaGram closed its Series B round at $10 million in February 2021, which was led by Elevation Capital and Elevar Equity.

SarvaGram provides a range of customised financial and capacity-enhancing products to unlock the potential of an increasingly aspirational rural India -a target market of over 80 million households.

Headquartered in Mumbai, SarvaGram currently operates out of 8 hubs, 50 outlets across 4 states, and has 250 and more franchise partners covering 8000 villages.

"First, the inflection point in rural markets as demonstrated by growing economic activity and aspirations seen across rural households and second, leveraging the entry point of financial services for a truly data-led broader distribution strategy. This round provides aligned growth capital to help the company execute to their scale ambitions after successfully demonstrating robust financial margins in the business model, " said Jyotsna Krishnan at Managing Partner, Elevar Equity.