StrideOne, ZipLoan Partner on Financial Inclusivity for Indian SMBs

Saying microbusiness and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India are often overlooked by traditional financial institutions, financial services platform StrideOne and lender ZipLoan have formed a strategic collaboration to reach more of these businesses and grow their product offerings.

The partnership will bring together StrideOne’s digital banking for startups and ZipLoan’s working capital solutions for microbusinesses and SMBs, The Economic Times reported Friday (Sept. 2).

“Combining StrideOne’s acumen and understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India with our expertise of having served 11,000 [microbusinesses and SMBs] across key markets will help us expand both our reach and product suite,” ZipLoan Co-Founder and CEO Kshitij Puri said in the report.

Indian SMBs have had difficulty accessing credit and working capital, StrideOne Founder Ishpreet Gandhi said in the report.

“Aligned with our larger goal of fueling India’s entrepreneurial ambitions, our partnership with ZipLoan is a strategic step toward enhancing financial inclusivity for [microbusinesses and SMBs],” Gandhi said, per the report.

The announcement comes about a month after Indian working capital solution provider CredAble raised $9 million via an equity infusion from Indian bank Axis Bank and CredAble’s existing investor OAKS Asset Management.

Read more: Indian Firm CredAble Raises $9M to Grow Working Capital Financing Platform

“This direct investment by Axis Bank and the continued support from existing investors validates CredAble’s journey thus far to help India solve its working capital woes,” CredAble Co-Founder and CEO Nirav Choksi said at the time.

More recently, Meta announced Tuesday (Aug. 30) that it will allow SMBs in India to pay for advertising campaigns in three monthly installments without having to pay interest — and that it is doing so to strengthen working capital support for those businesses.

See more: Meta Lets Indian Advertisers Pay in Interest-Free Installments

“We know that each business is on a distinct journey, and we are committed to building India-focused solutions keeping in mind their unique needs,” said Ajit Mohan, vice president and managing director (Facebook India) at Meta.