Kinara Capital Wins Double Honors By IFC & SME Finance Forum As SME Financier Of The Year In Both The Global & Asia Categories

● Kinara Capital struck two wins with a Platinum Award in the ‘SME Financier of the Year – NBFI, MFI, Fintech Global’ category and a Silver Award in the ‘SME Financier of the Year – Asia’ category
● The awards recognize Kinara Capital for championing MSME growth in India and for demonstrating innovation and leadership

Bengaluru, September 30, 2024: Kinara Capital, a leading fintech driving MSME financial inclusion in India, achieved a remarkable milestone by winning two prestigious international awards at the Global SME Finance Forum 2024 held in São Paulo, Brazil. Kinara Capital won the Platinum Award in the SME Financier of the Year – NBFI, MFI, Fintech Global category, and the Silver Award in the SME Financier of the Year – Asia category. The awards recognize Kinara Capital for championing MSME growth in India and for demonstrating innovation and leadership in expanding financial inclusion.

The Global SME Finance Forum is an annual event hosted by the SME Finance Forum, an initiative under the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

Speaking on the remarkable achievement, Hardika Shah, Founder & CEO of Kinara Capital, said,“We are deeply honored that Kinara Capital won the SME Financier of the Year in both the Global and the Asia categories from SME Finance Forum and IFC. These recognitions affirm our role in revolutionizing MSME financing and our commitment to uplifting the underserved small business entrepreneurs in India. We have remained unwavering from our mission of MSME financial inclusion and will continue to deliver innovative solutions empowering MSMEs to thrive and contribute to India’s economy.”

India has the second-largest MSME sector in the world with over 63 million MSMEs that contribute to nearly 30% of the country’s GDP. The World Bank has identified the MSME credit gap in India to be at over USD 400 billion which presents a large opportunity to drive impact.

With its multilingual myKinara App and doorstep customer service, Kinara Capital eases access to credit for underserved MSMEs that can go from loan inquiry to loan disbursement within 24-hours. Kinara Capital has moved away from traditional dependencies on credit bureau scores and property collateral to assess creditworthiness. Instead, its proprietary AI/ML data-driven credit decisioning model provides accurate loan decisions based on 100+ unique parameters. This tech-enabled credit assessment also eliminates human bias from the process and has proven especially beneficial for women entrepreneurs.

This year’s awards were selected by a panel of 96 international judges, with only four organizations from India being recognized across categories. In the SME Financier- Asia category, Kinara Capital is the only company to have won from India. These latest honors build on the previous accolades from the 2019 Global SME Finance Forum when Kinara Capital won the Gold Award in the ‘Bank of the Year – Asia’ category and received an Honorable Mention in the ‘Women-owned SME Bank of the Year’ category.

To date, Kinara Capital has disbursed more than INR 7,401 crores through 128,027+ collateral-free business loans, supporting over 83,761 MSMEs across India. This has led to the creation of 426,199 jobs and an average 21% increase in the income of supported entrepreneurs, generating a significant socio-economic impact in local communities.

About Kinara Capital

Kinara Capital is a fast-growing fintech company addressing the large MSME credit gap in India by delivering a collateral-free and bias-free approach to accessing formal credit. In 2024, Kinara Capital ranked on the Financial Times’ FT500 list of ‘Top 500 High-Growth Companies in Asia-Pacific’ for the 5th consecutive year. Led by the visionary Founder & CEO Hardika Shah, Kinara Capital is qualified as a Systemically Important Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and is a debt-listed entity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Founded in 2011, and headquartered in Bengaluru, Kinara Capital has 133 branches and a workforce of 2,000+ employees. Visit https://kinaracapital.com/ for more information and follow us on LinkedIn.

About SME Finance Forum

The SME Finance Forum was established by the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) in 2012 as a knowledge center for data, research, and best practices in promoting SME finance. As an implementing partner for the GPFI, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was tasked with managing the initiative. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group which focuses on development in emerging economies. The SME Finance Forum works to expand access to finance for small and medium businesses by bringing together financial institutions, technology innovators, and policymakers to foster knowledge exchange, networking, and best practices that enhance SME growth and employment worldwide. https://smefinanceforum.org/

This press release may contain projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance. These statements are only predictions and reflect our current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risk and uncertainties and subject to change at any time. Given business risks and uncertainties, undue reliance on these forward-looking statements should not be placed. Actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements.

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