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The Bangalore-based IT Solutions startup, Artoo has secured INR 3.1 Cr in Series A from Accion Venture Labs and Switzerland-based Rianta Capital Zurich’s Artha Initiative. Artoo has developed a financial customer relationship management solution for the financial sector.
The company plans to utilize the funds to hire more people in order to expand to South East Asia and to improve performance and features of the technology platform to allow customers to personalize their financial product. Currently, the firm has a team of 16 people and it plans to take this to 40 by year end. Artoo will start expanding its operations from Philippines by the end of 2015.
Speaking on the development, Sameer Segal, founder and CEO, Artoo said, “We have found our value proposition with clients and it’s time to further penetrate the SME lending market. We want to look at mainstream banks.”
Launched in 2010 by Sameer Sehgal, Artoo’s CRM solution offers a suite of modules, such as lead management, loan origination and credit underwriting, and is targeted at microfinance, micro, small and medium enterprise lending and mainstream banking. Its Financial CRM allows users to manage the entire customer lifecycle from loan sourcing to post-disbursement servicing, all on a single platform.
Artoo’s product is an Android-based platform for smart devices that field agents can use as a tool. The software allows them to perform various functions like customer enrolling, credit bureau checks, collections and data analytics, all in real time. The software can be used to provide services to three sectors: financial inclusion, primary healthcare and energy distribution.
Artoo started with an investment of INR 40 lakh, raised from family & friends. It had secured $50K in seed funding from Villgro, formerly known as Rural Innovations Network, a Nonprofit organisation that focuses on spotting, mentoring and incubating innovations that have maximum potential to change lives, in Rural India. Prior to that, it had also raised $80K in seed funding.
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