On a Mission To Make Financial Services Inclusive Avanti Finance believes in a community-centric, digital-delivery model. The company uses technology to make financial services affordable and accessible for all
By Shrabona Ghosh •
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Avanti Finance was formed with the vision to make financial services affordable and accessible for all. "Our founders used communities and technology to offer financial services to this segment and create sustainable livelihoods and opportunities for economic prosperity. From the outset, Avanti was conceived as a population-scale financial inclusion platform that will accelerate an ecosystem of multiple mission-aligned stakeholders spanning across social, development, commercial and the government sectors," said Rahul Gupta, CEO, Avanti Finance.
The business model of the company is about building a collaborative digital platform which is paperless, presence less and cashless. "Ours is not just a proprietary lending business. It includes our unique lending system that is purpose-built for an assisted mode as many of our users do not have smartphones or the ability to onboard themselves digitally. Our platform is used for loans; we book directly with our capital and can be leveraged by a diverse set of capital providers like banks (for co-lending or booking the asset on their own balance sheet) MFIs, NGOs, credit co-operatives, foundations and philanthropic organizations. Avanti provides access to an incremental user base, a robust digital platform for efficient servicing."
The company has raised a Series A and debt funding of INR 306 crore from a consortium of marquee investors. The company believes in a community-centric, digital-delivery model as the only way to build a scalable business. "Executing it in rural locations has come with its set of challenges both operationally and strategically."
Talking about the growth plans, he said, "We are now poised to grow rapidly with our platform, partnership network and the core team ready to take the business to its next phase. We aim to serve a million users within a couple of years. We will be activating alliances with other financial institutions where third-party capital can partner with our platform and curate partnerships to reach new geographies and customer segments."
For the budding entrepreneurs, this CEO has a message, "Any journey in this sector needs fortitude and patience. Instant gratification is unlikely to happen. The most important element is to have a passion for the cause and the risk tolerance to invent, fail and try again. If there is self-belief and a long-term zeal to stay in the course, the rest will fall in place and the results can be rewarding," said the CEO.
