India’s Power2SME concluded 2015 with Nandan Nilekani stepping in as a strategic investor.
Nilekani’s investment in Power2SME follows major announcements by the Government such as ‘Make in India’ and its focus to more than double the current share of manufacturing to 25 percent of GDP by 2022, from the existing 12 percent.
The SME sector is poised for high growth and the strategic investment from Infosys co-founder and former Chairman of UIDAI Nandan Nilekani in Power2SME will prove to be a big boost for the Power2SME business as it continues to empower SMEs across their sourcing needs as well as financial requirements.
Power2SME over the last 3 years has worked with close to 30,000 SMEs and has used technology to translate their need for competitive raw material pricing as well as financial assistance through the large number of Financial Institutions Power2SME partners with.
Nandan Nilekani commented that, “Indian SMEs act as an engine for growth of our nation and they are critical to making India a manufacturing hub. Power2SME has a unique business model that focuses on making SMEs bankable and profitable and I am excited to watch the growth journey of this company as it continues to contribute in strengthening the SME social fabric of the nation.”
R. Narayan, Founder & CEO, Power2SME, said that, “To have Nilekani as our strategic investor and receive his support for Power2SME’s vision to make Indian SMEs bankable is exciting for us. It is critical to foster the sector to meet the national imperatives of financial inclusion and to generate employment in India. Power2SME is working towards creating an ecosystem that addresses SMEs’ challenges in raw material procurement and financial assistance, which are major roadblocks for growth of SMEs. We have a very aggressive plan for developing our business and boosting revenues in the future.”
All existing investors, including Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Inventus Capital, participated in this funding round.
With a sharp business focus to break even in the coming financial year Power2SME will broaden its product portfolio, strengthen and deepen vendor relationships plus continue to engage on the ground with SMEs Pan India through its SME Transformation Camps while strengthening its technology platform and mobile app offering. fii-news.com
