British International Investment

Kinara Capital

South AsiaFinancial services

Founded in 2011, Kinara Capital is a tech-enabled leading provider of unsecured small business loans in India to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), focusing on manufacturing and trading in urban and semi-urban cities. Headquartered in Bangalore, it is active in six states and over 90 cities in South and West India through its 125 branches and it has over 30,000 active borrowers.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

We invested in Kinara Capital in direct equity as part of a fundraise with existing investors Nuveen and Triple Jump.

Our funding aims to support the company to boost productivity within India's MSME sector and facilitate entrepreneurial growth. It will do this by supporting the company to broaden its presence in existing locations, and drive technology initiatives and product expansion for its customer base.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact
  • Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all (SDG 8.10).
  • Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to financial services (SDG 5.a).
  • By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men (SDG 8.5).

How?

Primary Secondary

Kinara provides rapid and convenient access to working and growth capital to micro-enterprises in India. A material proportion of these firms are: 1) excluded from formal financial services; 2) low-income; and 3) female-owned. This access to credit supports the growth and day-to-day management of these firms, in turn safeguarding and creating economic opportunities for owners, employees and suppliers. Kinara's clients also begin to develop a credit rating history and the digitisation of the credit process also lowers costs for Kinara and its clients.

The expansion of Kinara’s branch network will create jobs for a range of new employees.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Owners, employees, suppliers, customers

India

From a sample of over 5,000 loans, Kinara lends between $313-$62,600 to its clients with a mean ticket size of $5,200. The same sample suggests 35 per cent of the households in which Kinara’s client borrowers reside live under $313/month. According to Kinara, more than 80 per cent of the clients’ businesses have 1-10 employees, c.15 per cent of borrowers are female, and over 75 per cent customers do not have any business loans from banks nor other financial institutions. By assets under management in March ‘22, Kinara lends to firms in these sectors: manufacturing (43 per cent), trading (55 per cent) and services (2 per cent).

Employees

India

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration
  • Our funding will contribute to growth of assets and loan disbursements.
  • Kinara has 122 branches with plans to expand to 200 by 2026.
  • Analysis of Kinara’s lending to date shows that 75 per cent of clients have no access to formal bank finance.
  • From a sample of 5,000 loans, 78 per cent of Kinara’s clients experience a pre- vs. post-loan monthly income increase. We expect a similar depth of impact through this investment.
  • The working capital loan has a typical tenor of 6-12 months, the business loan 30-33 months, and the loan against property product 45-48 months. Repeat borrowing beyond first-time loans is also likely to lead to sustained impact. A stronger credit history will also enable future access to finance opportunities, beyond borrowing with Kinara.
  • All new roles are expected to be full-time in nature.
  • The roles are fully costed and built into the Kinara business plan. They're likely therefore to provide lasting incomes.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality
  • Financial additionality: Capital is not offered in sufficient quantity.
  • Value additionality: We will bring knowledge and advice; improvement of processes, practices or standard improvements; support for developmental strategies; female economic empowerment support.

Risk

Evidence Risk
  • Our understanding of impact on firms, their Employees, suppliers and their Customers depends on data from Kinara. Proxy data from Kinara suggests that its clients are predominantly low-income and financially excluded, but is Limited to the proprietors. We will mitigate This risk through surveying.

Impact score

Impact score (at point of investment)

The Impact Score is a tool to help us manage our performance against our strategic impact objectives. It is designed to incentivise investments that support our productive, sustainable, and inclusive objectives. You can find out more here.

The Impact Score is published for investments made from 2022 onwards. The Impact Scores are calculated at the point of investment. We publish the Impact Scores of new investments annually, once the information has been externally assured by an independent third party.

6

Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.

  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We agreed an ESAP focused on developing and implementing a proportionate ESMS.

Environmental and social risk

Medium-High

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to [email protected] or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at [email protected]

  • Key facts

    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.

    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.

    :
    D5790
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).

    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.

    :
    South Asia
    Country

    The countries where the investment delivers impact. Where impact is delivered in multiple countries, this is indicated.

    :
    India
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Financial services

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.

    Investment type :
    Equity
    Start date :
    September 2022
    Amount :
    $12.2m
    Currency of investment :
    INR
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.

    :
    India
    2X Gender Finance

    Indicates whether the investment is ‘2X qualified’ using the 2X Challenge criteria. You can find out more here. It only applies to investments made from 2018 onwards, when the 2X Challenge was first launched.

    :
    Fully qualified

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