Alphabet-backed fintech Aye Finance, a new-age non-banking finance company, has received a grant of £2,00,000 (₹2.05 crore) from TRANSFORM, a joint initiative led by Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and EY.
This grant has been given to address the challenges of Kirana owners’ working capital.
Kirana stores account for approximately 88 per cent of India’s retail sector, significantly contributing to the country’s GDP.
Sanjay Sharma, Founder and Managing Director of Aye Finance, said, “With this collaboration with TRANSFORM, we will build momentum for our newly launched BNPL product, SwitchPe and solve the funding challenges in the FMCG supply chain.”
Last month Aye launched its new on-tap product SwitchPe to provide credit lines to retailers the for procurement of supplies. Through this new grant, Aye Finance will be leveraging the extensive expertise of Unilever (one of TRANSFORM’s founding organizations) in the FMCG sector to make SwtichPe available to a larger number of grocery store owners, including women, and bring them into the fold of organized lending.
Established in 2015, TRANSFORM is a proven model aiming to increase its impact by working with new partner organisations across Africa, Asia and beyond. The initiative has supported over 100 projects in 17 countries and has now brought Aye Finance into the community.
TRANSFORM combines grant funding, business insight and wider resources for entrepreneurs with in-depth research.
