Participated · Series A · Jul 2021

Smile Identity offers a suite of identity-verification products including face verification, liveness checks, document verification, digital KYC, onboarding, anti-fraud checks and identity-data deduplication. The company launched in 2018 and was founded by Mark Straub and William Bares. It has expanded product coverage from ~250 million identities to capabilities the company says can cover over a billion identities and 230 ID types across 100+ countries via its Document Verification product. Smile Identity processed over 30 million identity verifications in 2021 (about half of its ~50 million total checks since inception) and performs roughly 2–2.5 million monthly checks; it serves over 100 businesses across banking, fintech, education, agriculture and e-commerce. The firm says it doubled its client base since 2021 and tripled revenues over the same period. Growth plans include ramping hiring across East, Southern and West Africa, expanding into Francophone and Arab-speaking countries, opening offices (including London and Cape Town) and partnering with ID authorities and governments to support consent standards and data-protection compliance. Smile Identity builds ID verification and KYC compliance tools tailored to African identities using de-biased face recognition, liveness checks and anti-fraud measures. Founded in 2017 by Mark Straub and William Bares, the company matches selfies against identity documents and photos held by ID authorities. It covers more than 250 million identities, supports over 15 ID types, performs over one million identity checks per month and serves about 80 customers charged on a per-query basis. Customers span banking, fintech, ride-sharing, worker verification, public social welfare programs and telecommunications, including Paystack, Paga, Chipper Cash, Kuda, Umba, Stanbic IBTC, Binance, Luno and Paxful. Smile Identity plans to use new funding to improve its services, expand into more markets, add support for additional ID types, and hire more engineers and support staff across Africa. The company is also building compliance templates and product features to help clients meet evolving local data-protection and consent requirements.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2020

iMerit is described in the articles as operating in the communications & IT services sector and associated with AI-related activity that creates skilled employment. British International Investment’s write-up emphasizes the company’s role in generating skilled jobs, particularly for women, in regions where they are most needed. The investment documentation indicates iMerit delivers impact in Bhutan and India within the South Asia region. The company is domiciled in the USA. In November 2021 BII committed $12.8m to iMerit as an equity investment. BII also records the investment as fully qualified under the 2X Gender Finance criteria. The project is listed as active under project number D4288 and the entry was last updated in June 2024. iMerit operates a proprietary AI and machine-learning platform that powers advanced algorithms in machine learning, computer vision, natural language understanding, e-commerce, augmented reality and data analytics. The company supplies labeled and enriched data for applications including cancer cell research, crop-yield optimization and training driverless cars. It serves multiple markets such as automotive, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, media and entertainment, and government. Led by CEO and founder Radha R. Basu with DD Ganguly as President of iMerit USA, the company currently employs about 3,000 people across the US, India and Bhutan. iMerit plans to expand its advanced workforce to 10,000 global employees by 2023. The firm intends to use the newly raised funds to continue innovation on its proprietary AI platform and scale operations.

Led · Seed · Nov 2016

Paradime Technologies operates numberz.in, a cash-flow management B2B platform that helps small and medium enterprises with invoice management and expense management. The company started in July last year and was earlier known as getfiscal.in. It has around 3,750 SME clients and charges Rs 10,000 per year for its service. Founders are Aditya Tulsian, Baskar Ganapathy and Rajeev Chari, who have backgrounds at Intuit, AT&T, Coca‑Cola and Ford. The startup said its business doubled in one month compared to October and expects rapid growth driven by upcoming GST and recent demonetisation. It recently raised seed funding and is pursuing further growth and funding.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2016

NeoGrowth is a Mumbai-based fintech that provides technology-led, quick, and hassle-free loans to MSMEs across more than 70 segments. It serves businesses from neighbourhood kirana stores to eateries and salons across over 25 locations in India. The startup says it has served over 150,000 customers and disbursed over $1 billion in loans. Founded by Dhruv Khaitan and Piyush Khaitan, NeoGrowth plans to accelerate MSME growth and promote financial inclusion using the digital payments ecosystem. The company intends to use the newly raised capital to expand reach, improve efficiency, and integrate underserved micro-entrepreneurs into mainstream financing. Its financing strategy includes debt facilities from global investors and a history of capital raises from development and impact-focused backers. NeoGrowth is a fintech lender that provides loans to first-time entrepreneurs, women business owners, and underserved small businesses across roughly 70 MSME segments. The company serves borrowers across 25 locations and is connected with over 1.5 lakh MSMEs. It has Rs 1,600 crore of assets under management and has disbursed over USD 1 billion in loans, according to MD & CEO Arun Nayyar. NeoGrowth was founded by Dhruv Khaitan and Piyush Khaitan about a decade ago. The firm says new capital will be used for on-lending and entering new markets as it continues to scale its MSME lending operations. NeoGrowth is a non-banking finance company focused on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India. Its core offerings include digital payments-based lending, a modular product suite, analytics-based underwriting, and flexible repayment options to enable credit access for SMEs. The company has been in SME lending for nearly a decade and reports engagement with over 1 lakh customers and more than $1 billion disbursed across 25 locations in India. NeoGrowth recently secured $20 million from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) through an external commercial borrowing. The facility has a five-year tenor with a two-year moratorium on principal and will be used for onward lending to SME customers per ECB guidelines. Management says the capital will help extend credit, drive the firm’s mission to fund small businesses via the digital ecosystem, and create a positive impact on SMEs. NeoGrowth Credit Pvt Ltd is an Indian digital lender that underwrites loans for small and medium business owners by analyzing digital payments data generated from daily sales. Its lending platform features flexible, small, daily automated repayments tailored to merchant cash flows. Led by Managing Director PK Khaitan, the company focuses on expanding access to credit for small businesses. NeoGrowth intends to use the new funds to expand lending into India’s largest cities and other urban areas. The company is backed by investors including Omidyar Network, Khosla Impact, and Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, alongside Aspada and Quona Capital. In conjunction with the round, LeapFrog’s Michael Fernandes joined NeoGrowth’s Board of Directors. NeoGrowth is a Mumbai-based fintech that provides credit to small and mid-sized retail enterprises. Using a data- and technology-driven platform, it offers flexible loan products secured against retailers' future credit and debit card sales and says it is the first company in India to offer this product. Loans are delivered via NeoGrowth's in-house digital lending platform, which the company cites for flexible repayment terms and minimal credit-history requirements. Management reports that more than three in four customers return for a new loan. NeoGrowth has now raised $35 million (INR 225 crores) in total and will use proceeds to build its loan book and invest in technology, brand, and distribution. Investors and company leadership have highlighted the firm's technology advantage and potential to expand financial inclusion among retailers.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2015

Lookup is a chat-first service built on top of Google Maps API that lets users find local stores, hotels and services and connect with merchants inside the app. It routes basic queries to automated bots and sends messages to Lookup’s operations center when merchants have not yet claimed their account. The company started last December and currently lists about 70,000 merchants across Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, with 1.2 million registered users and roughly 250,000 monthly active users. Lookup does not integrate with POS or inventory systems and does not yet generate revenue. Planned monetization includes integrated payments (with Lookup taking a cut) and a paid lead-generation engine that surfaces merchants for specific searches. The recent funding will be used to expand product development and grow the service’s footprint and merchant base.