Financial services start-up Kaleidofin raises $2.8 million in a round led by Omidyar Network

New Delhi: Financial services start-up Kaleidofin Monday said it has raised $2.8 million in a seed round led by Omidyar Network, eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar’s impact investment firm.

Kaleidofin, backed by Blume Ventures, was started by Sucharita Mukherjee, an Indian Institute of Management- Ahmadabad alum and the former chief executive officer at IFMR Holdings, a Chennai-based financial services group, along with Puneet Gupta, IFMR’s former chief financial officer.

Mukherjee is also the founder of IFMR Capital (now called Northern Arc Capital), a financier of social impact enterprises, having stepped down as its CEO after a decade-long stint in 2017. She launched Kaleidofin in July that year.

Focused on low-income customers and those working in the informal sector, Kaleidofin offers tailored financial services such as insurance, saving schemes and credit through a mobile application.

These financial products are delivered through strategic partnerships with institutions, such as Bharti AXA and ICICI Pru Life for insurance and ICICI Pru MF, Franklin Templeton, SBI and HDFC among others on the savings side.

The company said it will use proceeds from the round primarily to forge partnerships with intermediaries and customer groups, such as banking correspondents, cooperatives, self-help groups, and microfinance institutions.

Kaleidofin acquires customers through partnerships with banks, microfinance institutions, and non-banking finance companies like SEWA Bank and Sonata Micro Finance that work with informal sector customers, and directly through its mobile app.