Agri value chain finance firm Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services Pvt. Ltd on Tuesday said it has raised $5 million ( ₹33 crore) in debt from Symbiotics, an impact investor focusing on emerging markets.
Chennai-based Samunnati and its subsidiary, Samunnati Agro Solutions, aim to enhance the efficiency of agri value chains by providing financial intermediation, market linkages, advisory and trade services. Samunnati provides affordable and customized financial product offerings such as retail loans (cattle loans, micro agri loans and asset-backed loans) to small/marginal farmers, working capital loans to community-based organizations and receivable finance to agri SMEs.
Samunnati said it raised the funds through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs), making it the lender’s fifth such offshore debt fund-raise in the last seven months.
Samunnati will use the funds to build its portfolio by financing the working capital requirements of small-holder farmer organizations and agri-enterprises across the value chain.
“We are pleased to on-board Symbiotics as a partner in enabling agricultural value chains to reach a higher equilibrium. We see a strong mission alignment between Samunnati’s focus on providing working capital solutions to value chain actors along with market linkages and advisory services and Symbiotics’ stated mission of providing under-served businesses with access to capital,” said Anil Kumar S.G., founder and chief executive, Samunnati.
Founded in 2014, Samunnati has a presence in 14 states, focusing on 34 value chains, and has so far disbursed over₹1,400 crore of credit, indirectly impacting two million farmers.
“We are delighted to establish this new partnership with such an innovative company as Samunnati and look forward to championing the development and growth of small-holder farmer organizations and agri-enterprises along the agricultural value chain in India,” said Daniel Schriber, head of investments at Symbiotics.
Source: Mint