ImpactAlpha, April 19 – Kinara Capital provides unsecured, no-collateral loans of up to three million rupees ($40,000) to micro and small businesses in India. Dutch impact investor TripleJump backed Kinara’s $50 million funding round alongside Nuveen, the $1.3 trillion asset-management arm of TIAA, which invested via its $218 million impact fund.
The Bangalore-based fintech venture was early to digital lending when it launched in 2011. It has since made nearly $400 million in loans. Its HerVikas loan product is designed for women entrepreneurs. Kinara’s corporate social responsibility fund provided no-interest loans and working capital to self-employed women during the COVID pandemic.
Who’s who
Kinara, a woman-founded and led company, has long been a darling of impact investors. Sorenson Impact Fund became one of Kinara’s first institutional investors in 2013. Unitus Impact Fund backed the company in 2016 from its first fund, which focused on livelihoods. Kinara has raised debt from responsAbility (now part of U.K.-based investment manager M&G) and from IIX’s Women’s Livelihood Bond series. Kinara raised $9.2 million from Invest in Visions last year.
Other investors include Gaja Capital, GAWA Capital, Dell Foundation and Patamar Capital.
