Nakad

Nakad is a fintech company operating in India's supply chain finance sector, established in January 2022 by founders Ujwal Kalra, Sambhav Jain, and Avinash Uttav. The founding team consists of alumni from IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Bombay, and IIT Guwahati, with prior professional experience at organizations like Boston Consulting Group, HUL, and Oracle. Co-founder and CEO Ujwal Kalra was motivated by his family background in accounting and industry, which gave him a direct understanding of the credit constraints faced by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The company targets the significant working capital gap experienced by Indian MSMEs within complex supply chains. Nakad's core business revolves around providing early payment and working capital credit to these smaller suppliers, who often face challenges accessing formal financing channels. This is achieved by partnering with large corporations, referred to as 'anchors', to offer financing solutions to their extensive networks of suppliers, including those in deeper tiers (tier-2, tier-3). The business model involves connecting MSME suppliers with a marketplace of lenders, which includes major public and private sector banks, as well as Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).

Nakad's primary offering is a digital supply chain finance platform centered around its proprietary "MicroBill" technology. This system tokenizes and fractionalizes invoices from MSMEs, allowing them to secure financing against these receivables. Beyond invoice discounting, the company provides a Reconciliation-as-a-Service product, which automates financial reconciliations, balance confirmations, and ledger requests to improve accuracy and reduce manual effort for its clients. By facilitating a connection between credit-starved MSMEs and formal financial institutions, Nakad aims to make the entire supply chain more resilient and efficient. In May 2022, the company secured a significant milestone with a $7 million seed funding round co-led by Accel and Matrix Partners India. This capital was earmarked for product development, team expansion, and scaling operations across India.

Keywords: supply chain finance, MSME financing, invoice discounting, working capital solutions, fintech India, deep-tier financing, trade finance, receivable financing, financial technology, B2B finance, anchor-led financing, invoice tokenization, Reconciliation-as-a-Service, corporate supply chain, SME credit, NBFC partnerships, digital lending, payables management, receivables automation, financial inclusion for MSMEs