Jai Kisan raises $50m in Series B funding round

By Leandra Monteiro

Rural-focused agri-FinTech Jai Kisan recently announced it has raised $50 million (INR 390 crore) as part of its ongoing Series B round.

Jai Kisan aims to use the raised funds to expand its product suite, accelerate the development of existing products, talent acquisition, and boost data science and engineering capabilities, the company said.

The series B round saw participation from new investors GMO Venture Partners, Yara Growth Ventures and DG Daiwa Ventures. Existing investors Blume, Arkam Ventures, Mirae Asset, Snow Leopard Ventures and others also took part.

Jai Kisan was founded by Arjun Ahluwalia and Adriel Maniego with the vision of making financial inclusion a reality for rural individuals and businesses. Jai Kisan today provides digital financial services starting with credit for online and offline, income generating, rural commerce transactions.

Informal credit by the merchant or seller is an expectation for customers and not a value-added service in rural India. Lack of formalised credit poses a dire and imperative challenge for rural businesses to grow. Jai Kisan has leveraged the captive relationship between the business and the farmer and rural individuals in a B2B2C manner to deploy credit to farmers and rural individuals en masse in a sustainable manner working with 700+ organized and unorganized entities in the space with a cumulative customer base of over 1.5 lakh rural individuals including farmers. By empowering rural businesses through point-of-sale/purchase credit, Jai Kisan has helped create scalability for rural businesses and helps deploy low-cost formal credit to farmers and other rural individuals.

The Rural FinTech also previously raised US$ 30mn (INR 217 Crores) in a combination of equity and debt in a Series A round of funding led by Mirae Asset. Syngenta Ventures, existing investors Blume, Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES (NABARD), Prophetic Ventures and Better, other global investors, and prominent HNIs also participated in the round.