NAKAD, a supply chain fintech for Indian MSMEs, raises $7M in Seed funding

NAKAD, a supply chain fintech for Indian MSMEs, has raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Accel and Matrix Partners India, along with participation from AdvantEdge Founders. The company will deploy the funds to aggressively hire, build a world-class product and scale operations within India. 

Other prominent angel investors that participated in this round include Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar (Founders, Razorpay),  Amrit Acharya and Rahul Sharma (Founders, Zetwerk), Sachin Agrawal, Aniket Deb and Ankit Tomar (Founders, Bizongo), Nitin Gupta (CEO, Uni Cards), Raghunandan G (CEO, Zolve), Rangarajan Krishna (CEO, Five Star Business Finance), Arindam Bhattacharya (Managing Director & Senior Partner and former India Head, BCG), Sharad Verma and Pranay Mehrotra (Managing Directors & Senior Partners, BCG).

Established in January 2022 by Ujwal Kalra, Sambhav Jain and Avinash Uttav, NAKAD aims to solve the massive problem of working capital of Indian MSMEs in the supply chain. The company is pioneering a new financing paradigm enabled by MicroBill, a proprietary technology. This technology tokenises invoices and will unlock $30 Billion worth of capital for credit-starved MSMEs. The company has partnered with multiple anchors, their supplier base, banks and NBFCs to enable a seamless solution, designed to benefit the entire ecosystem.

NAKAD’s founders are alumni of IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Bombay and IIT Guwahati, and are former leaders from Boston Consulting Group, HUL, Oracle, and Samsung.

Commenting on the announcement, Ujwal Kalra, Co-founder & CEO, NAKAD said, “Hailing from a family of a Chartered Accountant and Industrialist, I implicitly understood the massive credit crunch of MSMEs resulting in inability to grow their business and pay their employees on time. This issue is not just confined to MSMEs but also rolls back to their large customers, impacting the entire supply chain. Understanding this issue, Sambhav, Avinash and I started contemplating the solution: NAKAD. The huge impetus we got from the ground while implementing the solution gave us our ‘why’ for creating NAKAD, making the mission of our lives - to make a deep impact on a massive underserved market. Our solution creates a win-win case for all the stakeholders.”

He added, “We are thrilled to have marquee investors Accel, Matrix Partners India and AdvantEdge Founders back us, who bring a unique combination of vast experience across Fintech, B2B and industrial expertise.”

Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel said, "Credit for MSMEs is a misnomer, B2B supply chain credit today is limited to only large enterprises. This is because financial institutions find it extremely hard to access verified information of transactions between OEMs, tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers. We are quite excited to partner with the NAKAD team who have built an amazing technology solution to this problem."

Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India said, “Our thesis is that all supply chains in India are getting digitized with both B2B payments and transaction finance crucial to digital adoption and stickiness. NAKAD is addressing a big opportunity in deep-tier supply chain financing. The founders have a unique approach to penetrating large industrial ecosystems with software and then driving formal payments and credit penetration among MSMEs in that ecosystem. We are excited to partner with Ujwal, Sambhav & Avinash as they set out to transform MSME supply chains!"

Rangarajan Krishnan, CEO of Five Star Business Finance shared, “The opportunity NAKAD is targeting is really large. The team is creating a sustainable link between formal financial institutions and cash strapped MSMEs in a unique and sensible manner. I am very happy to be part of their first fundraise.”

Rajeev Kapoor, former President and CEO of Fiat India said, “Today the entire supply chain is affected because of the credit crunch faced by MSMEs. NAKAD’s distinctive solution will be supremely beneficial to the credit-starved companies. This would also make the supply chain more loyal, efficient and resilient.  NAKAD's unique solution would also drive  down procurement cost and support  JIT initiatives."

"AdvantEdge is India's only mobility-focused fund and is backed by the family office of a leading OE and one of the world's largest Tier 1 auto component group," said Kunal Khattar, Founding Partner AdvantEdge Founders, "We are excited to partner with NAKAD to enhance liquidity across the entire supply chain by fractionalizing receivables with their proprietary tech platform."