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udaanCapital — the fintech arm of the B2B ecommerce giant Udaan — on Tuesday said it has partnered with Northern Arc Capital to disburse credit to over 50,000 kiranas, enabling small retailers to make purchases for their stores from the array of suppliers on the Udaan platform.

udaanCapital catalyses kirana commerce, leading it to power more than a third of the sales on the Udaan platform.

At present, udaanCapital facilitates the disbursal of Rs 8000 crore of credit per annum to over 1.5 lakh kiranas and small businesses in India. It offers short-term credits between Rs 10,000 and Rs 25 lakh.

Speaking on the partnership, Chaitanya Adapa, Head of udaanCapital, said,

“We have always believed the right solution to closing the working capital gap in small retailers lies in taking a trade-centric view to risk management, and just as importantly, helping our lender partners take a similar view.”

He added, “In Northern Arc, we found a like-minded partner, who shared our vision and came onboard at a very early stage. I am very happy to see our partnership hit this milestone of putting productive capital in the hands of 50,000 small businesses.”

In the past year, Northern Arc Capital has disbursed over five million loans, including business loans, personal loans, and BNPL facilities. Since its inception in 2009, it has leveraged data insights and scorecards to raise over Rs 1 trillion in funds for its clients.

The platform is backed by marquee equity investors like Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, LeapFrog, IIFL, Accion, Augusta Investments (known as Affirma Capital), Dvara Trust, and Eight Roads.

Ashish Mehrotra, MD and CEO, Northern Arc Capital, added,

“At Northern Arc, we aim to be pioneers in finding innovative solutions to enable finance for MSMEs and the next billion households. We do this directly and through exciting partners like Udaan. We are delighted to have joined forces with udaanCapital since its early days, and meeting the credit needs of over 50,000 kirana stores across India.”