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 Leading fixed income platform Jiraaf (owned by AI Growth Pvt Ltd) has raised $8.7mn in equity as part of Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Accel and Harmony Partners. It also saw participation from Capital A & other angel investors. 

According to RBI, ~180 INR trillion is currently kept in fixed deposits, current accounts, and savings accounts. Growth in demat account holders (124mn currently) over the last five years show increasing penetration of other financial investment products. With continued education and awareness, this penetration is expected to increase significantly as customers participate into diverse asset classes to generate wealth. Jiraaf is aiming to build and support investor portfolio with alternative fixed income products. 

Founded in September 2021 by Saurav Ghosh and Vineet Agrawal, Jiraaf curates and offers fixed income investment opportunities through a customer friendly digital platform. The startup is on a mission to democratize fixed income in India. The platform offers diverse products including treasury bills, corporate bonds, asset leasing and venture debt which allows an investor to build a portfolio between 7% to 18% yield with a tenure ranging from 30 days to 3 years. Jiraaf has established itself as a market leader with more than 125,000 registered users. It has originated over INR 2,300 crores worth of investments till date and successfully repaid INR 1,500 crores of capital back to customers with zero defaults till date.  

Saurav Ghosh, Co-Founder at Jiraaf, said: “We are thrilled and humbled by the trust from our customers, investors and partners. Over the last 2 years, our endeavour has been to enable investors to deepen their fixed income portfolio by curating high quality opportunities and making them easily accessible. We have been able to build a robust tech platform that allows seamless transaction and portfolio tracking, making Jiraaf the first port of call for anything fixed income. We are fortunate to have customers building their credit portfolio on Jiraaf by transacting more than 10 times in the first 6 months and expanding their portfolio. The fund infusion will support our commitment towards bringing high quality fixed income instruments in a transparent and convenient manner.”

Barath Shankar Subramanian, Partner at Accel, said: “We believe Jiraaf is a category leading company in alternative investments in India. Cumulative household savings in India are at INR 13.75 lakh crores with immense potential for allocation to credible fixed income products. Mutual funds and robust equity markets have given Indian savers a good foundation for financial products. High quality fixed income products would fulfil an important gap in an investor’s portfolio. Jiraaf is transforming the investment landscape by making alternative fixed income accessible through a simple and transparent platform.”

Mark Lotke, Harmony, remarked: “We are delighted to participate with Vineet and Saurav in growing Jiraaf. Private credit is witnessing growth across the world and India has significant potential given the size of the mid-market economy. Jiraaf as a platform can provide two-way benefits of supporting growing companies through credit and ensuring investors are able to participate to make their portfolio more robust.” 

Jiraaf curates opportunities where an investor is able to realize average portfolio yield of 12.5%. It has partnered with over 50 borrowers including Caratlane, Homecredit, Edelweiss, Zuari International, Vivriti Capital, Prabhudas Liladhar and Everest Fleet. Team has significant experience in financial services across institutions like HSBC, Kotak, ICICI, RBS and Piramal Capital. 

Vineet Agrawal, Co-Founder at Jiraaf, said: “We look forward to using the funding to expand our teams across tech, investment, and customer care. In the next 24 months, our aim is to reach more than 300,000 users, enable INR 10,000 crores of investment. We aim to widen our offerings enabling better diversification and choices for our customers. A key for growing our business is to not just curate high quality investment opportunities but also provide more insightful information to our customers about different ways of creating generational wealth.”

Elluminate Capital acted as an exclusive advisor to Jiraaf on the transaction. Prior to this, Jiraaf had raised $7.5mn led by Accel as Series A in April 2022. The round saw participation from Mankekar family office, Capital A, angel investors including Siddharth Shah (co-founder Pharmeasy) and Ramakant Sharma (co-founder Livspace). Accel is a leading venture capital firm in India with over 200 investments and 22 unicorns in the portfolio. Harmony Partners is a US based fund with investments of over $1bn across 100+ companies. Notable investments in India include Byju and Swiggy.  

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