Milaap Social Ventures, South Asia’s leading impact-focused fundraising platform, today announced it has raised an additional 6.6 core INR ($1.1 million USD) in venture funding. Investors included Jungle Ventures, Toivo Annus, Lionrock, Jayesh Parekh & Unitus Ventures. Milaap enables any one in the world to engage in microfinance by lending as little as $25 to India’s working poor.
The new funding will be utilized to enhance the online product experience, expand marketing outreach, and scale operations. Prior to this investment Milaap raised 1.5 crore INR ($250,000 USD) in seed investments from Unitus Ventures, First Light Ventures, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Rajiv Madhok.
Milaap Social Ventures aims to help the more than 48 crore (480 million) Indians mostly living in the rural and semi-urban areas and who are outside of the formal banking system to procure reasonably-priced, life-improving loans for their small businesses, vocational training, or other essential household needs.
To date, Milaap has raised over 4.7 crore INR (US$800,000) in loans impacting over 25,000 lives across 10 states in India. These funds have provided better school infrastructure, employment-linked training for the youth, seed capital for small businesses, access to clean water, and safe lighting for families.
Unitus Capital advised Unitus Ventures on this transaction.
