South Asian impact fundraising platform gets Series A round

Milaap will use the capital to build out its platform and develop marketing and outreach efforts. Hari Kumar of Lion Rock and Jayesh Parekh of Jungle Ventures will both join the company's board.

Founded in 2010, Milaap targets the more than 480 million Indians in rural and semi-urban areas who are excluded from the formal banking system. It works with grass-roots organizations nationwide to identify the needs of specific communities and then publishes them online, providing a fundraising platform through which groups and individuals can lend money to projects. Lenders can track the process online from funding to repayment to social impact.

To date, Milaap has raised over $800,000 in loans for school infrastructure, employment-linked training young people, seed capital for small businesses, access to clean water and sanitation, and safe lighting for families.

"Asia has the largest pool of people who do not have access to traditional banking systems. We are tapping on the long tail of the internet and disrupting how people - either individually or through their activated social networks can raise and provide capital to the millions who are unbanked," said Sourabh Sharma, Milaap's CEO and co-founder.

The company previously received $250,000 in seed investment from Unitus, First Light Ventures angel investors Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Rajiv Madhok, the founders of One97 and Oorja, respectively. Angels in the new round include Toivo Annus, co-founder of Skype and Jayesh Parekh, co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television.

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• Topics
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• South Asia
• Financials
• Financial Services
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• India