Startup news and updates: daily roundup (May 1, 2023)
Indifi Technologies doubles AUM to over Rs 1500 crore
MSME digital lending platform Indifi Technologies said it crossed Rs 1,500 crore AUM, marking more than 100% growth over the previous year. Indifi attained profitability in FY22 and has maintained it through FY23.
“Improvement in underwriting models enabled the company to go deeper into the funnel of applicants to deliver higher approval rates and more sharply align credit limits with the risk profile of the borrower,” said Aditya Harkauli, Chief Business Officer, Indifi Technologies.
Indifi is a Gurugram-based online lending platform solving the credit needs of underserved, credit-worthy businesses. Since its inception in 2015, the company has disbursed over 68,000 loans with disbursals of over Rs 3,800 crore.
Through its tech interventions, it has made the loan process digital for both lenders and MSMEs by minimizing risk and reducing paperwork and associated costs.
Indifi continues to build on its network of digital partnerships by deepening existing relationships and adding new ones. The share of marketplace lenders in the AUM saw a 25% increase over the last financial year, contributing 50% by value in March ‘23, the company said in a statement.
Project Hero’s new feature to aid pay transparency
Construction tech startup Project Hero launched a wage discovery feature in its app for workers. The feature will allow workers to discover if they are paid more or less than the average salaries in their fields, ensure pay transparency, and prevent wage exploitation in the construction industry.
Such transparency will also enable workers to understand and recognise the value of their work and prevent them from falling prey to fraudulent and corrupt recruitment practices, the company said in a statement.
“Urban organised workforces have various ways of discovering the average salaries in their fields. Hence, we thought that developing a feature to prevent wage-based exploitation and wage discrimination in the unorganised construction industry will help blue-collar workers understand their worth and fight for it,” said Satya Vyas, Founder and CEO of Project Hero.
Project Hero is a membership-driven professional network for the construction industry, which provides access to jobs, orders, financial services, etc., to its members. So far, it has more than four lakh construction workers on its platform and has placed over 3,000 workers in projects.
Hype launches generative AI-powered ecommerce SaaS
Mumbai startup Hype launched its generative AI-powered ecommerce SaaS platform that aims to change the way merchants create, optimise, and manage their online stores.
Hype’s proprietary AI algorithms create a fully functional, visually appealing, and data-driven ecommerce store suited to the specific needs of each business with a few basic commands. The platform accelerates the store creation process and also significantly cuts down the time needed for design and development, the company said.
“Our platform is designed to remove barriers to entry for new merchants and help existing merchants scale their businesses faster than ever before,” said Faraz Naqvi, CEO, Hype.
Hype aims to attract a wide range of merchants, from small businesses and startups to established brands, looking to optimize their online presence.
“By harnessing the power of big data, Hype’s AI is able to create highly targeted, data-driven optimizations, ensuring merchants stay ahead in the competitive ecommerce landscape,” said Hasan Ali Naqvi, Chief Technology Officer, Hype.
(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)
Edited by Suman Singh