Kinara Capital: Global Recognition with Gold Award as Bank of the Year-Asia

Kinara Capital: Global Recognition with Gold Award as Bank of the Year-Asia

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AMSTERDAM - Oct 8, 2019 - Kinara Capital, a fintech leader driving financial inclusion of small business entrepreneurs in India, today 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, at the Global SME Finance Awards ceremony held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Organized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the SME Finance Forum, and endorsed by the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the Global SME Finance Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of financial institutions and fintech companies in delivering exceptional products and services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world. Kinara Capital was nominated by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) for this prestigious honor.

Kinara Capital pioneered small business lending without land or property collateral in India. The company offers fast and flexible loans to small businesses in the USD$3000-$30,000 range. Kinara Capital has disbursed USD$200 million across 40,000 loans for Asset Purchase and Working Capital needs of small businesses in the Manufacturing and Trading sectors.

Hardika Shah, Founder & CEO, Kinara Capital, said, ‘On behalf of my entire team, our partners and well-wishers, we are highly honored to win the Gold award for Bank of the Year-Asia category. It has been a labor of love and hard work to build Kinara Capital and we remain motivated by our mission of transforming lives and livelihoods. Today, we are even further encouraged with the support and recognition by the IFC, World Bank Group, and the SME Finance Forum. We especially thank the OPIC team for nominating Kinara Capital.’

Kinara Capital won the distinction from a competitive pool of 144 international applicants. The company was recognized for innovating on financial inclusion techniques and thus impacting over half a million lives in India with income generation, new job creation, and job sustenance.

Approximately 90% of Kinara’s customers are new to business credit. In a 2019 report by IFC-Intellecap, the credit gap in India is valued at USD$240 billion where capital needs of more than 80% of SMEs are not served by traditional sources of formal lending. This is the ‘missing middle’ that Kinara Capital is effectively serving.