The upward swing in India’s manufacturing sector, undeterred even by COVID-19, has helped Gurugram-based SMB credit startup Oxyzo Financial Services grow exponentially over the past couple of years, says Co-founder and CEO Ruchi Karla.
On Wednesday, the startup announced that it has raised a record $200 million in its Series A funding at a valuation of $1 billion, marking its entry into the unicorn club.
Additionally, its loan appetite experienced a 2.8X growth in its AUM (assets under management) from Rs 900 crore in FY 2020, to Rs 2,600 crore in FY 2022.
Oxyzo, a unit of Ofbusiness (a 2021 unicorn), essentially provides loans to small businesses based on their cash flows, which they use to buy raw materials and invest in building their manufacturing capabilities, among other things.
What Oxyzo offers and does is nothing new. But, it sets itself apart from its competitors in the way it approaches the value chain of borrowers. Another factor to note about Oxyzo is that it is one of the few startups run by a woman co-founder to turn unicorn.
Ruchi tells HerStory, “We wanted to be capital efficient and focus on profitability — and a combination of a great founding team and a deep market got us all excited.”
Oxyzo plans to continue to innovate in B2B financial services space through end-to-end capabilities across origination, deployment, curated structuring, and technology-enabled distribution. Read more.
Editor’s Pick: The story of Ajmera Realty
Ajmera Group of Companies was founded in 1968 when Late Chhotalal S Ajmera started it as a civil contracting firm. Over five decades later, it is now an NSE-listed real estate behemoth that is slowly setting its footprint overseas as well. Read more.
Startup Spotlight
Enabling gold retailers go digital
The jewellery market in India is dominated by small and medium jewellery stores, many of whom have been left behind in the post-pandemic race for digitisation.
SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) startup Goldsetu focuses on the entire value chain of the jewellery sector and offers multiple services to help unorganised retailers in the segment to start their digital journeys. Read more.
News & Updates
- Mumbai-based parenting platform BabyChakra has acquired regional parenting network Tinystep to accelerate its growth across the country. The platform has also earmarked Rs 100 crore to fuel its ambitions.
- Homegrown venture capital firm SIDBI Venture Capital Limited (SVCL) on Wednesday announced the first close of Rs 285 crore for its Rs 500 crore Ubharte Sitaare Fund (USF).
- Paytm, in response to a query from the Bombay Stock Exchange, said its business fundamentals remain robust, and it has "no information" that may have any bearing on its stock's price-volume behaviour.
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson of Biocon and Biocon Biologics, has been elected as the Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).
- Yuga Labs, the firm behind the ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club, has announced it had secured $450 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) at a $4 billion valuation.
Read more: [https://yourstory.com/2022/03/startup-news-updates-daily-roundup-march-23-2022-paytm-shares-bse-babychakra-stage3/amp ]
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