Ecommerce Marketplace Solv Raises $40 Mn To Grow Its BNPL Loan Offerings

B2B marketplace for MSMEs Solv has raised $40 Mn in Series A funding led by SBI Holdings. The round also saw participation from existing investor SC Ventures. With this round, Solv has raised nearly $80 Mn to date. 

Solv plans to use the fresh funds to launch additional high-margin product categories and expand to more than 300 cities in India. With the fresh funding, it also plans to drive the expansion of buy now pay later (BNPL) loans. In addition, Solv also plans to expand its anchor-led retailer finance to 50,000+ retailers.

Founded in 2019, Solv is an emarketplace for suppliers and buyers across MSMEs in India. It operates in different categories such as grocery and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), readymade apparel, electronic and accessories, home furnishings, and footwear and accessories.

Currently, it claims to be present in more than 200 cities and serves over 19,000 pin codes.  Moreover, it currently has more than 220,000 KYC-verified  MSME users on its platform. 

Solv platform offers a full bouquet of financial solutions for business expansion, supply chain financing and merchant BNPL to support small businesses. The Bengaluru-based startup has also developed a Solv scoring system to provide an alternative credit score to help thin-filed MSMEs customers avail credit on-demand.

“At Solv, we are passionate about improving the livelihoods of millions of underserved MSMEs in India and globally. The learnings in India, and the resultant development in product, technology and platform is also enabling us to create workable models for MSMEs in other geographies across the world,” Amit Bansal, CEO, Solv, said.

Bansal is optimistic that this investment will give Solv significant tailwinds and help it become a dominant B2B player over the next 12-18 months.

Solv clocked $260 Mn+ GMV run-rate in the first half of 2022 with about 60% average repeated purchases. It now aims to achieve a $500 Mn GMV run-rate within December 2022, along with achieving positive unit economics.

“We are excited to lead Solv’s Series A fund raise, one of our largest investments in the region. We are confident that Solv will become a global technology powerhouse and play a defining role in turbo-charging the growth of underserved MSMEs,” Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO, SBI Holdings, said.

Although India is the second-largest MSME in the world after China, the MSMEs face several issues such as lack of networking, absence of credit facilities, lower technological capabilities, among others.

According to a report by Research and Markets, the global B2B ecommerce market size is projected to reach $ 20.9 Tn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 17.5% during 2020 -2027. Meanwhile, the overall Indian ecommerce market is estimated to reach $400 Bn by 2030, as per an Inc42 report.

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