Hardika Shah’s parents challenged societal norms to give their two daughters the education they dreamt of.

They even sold their home in Mumbai and moved to a smaller one to fund Hardika’s undergraduate education in the US.

In 2011, the young girl launched Kinara Capital, a fintech startup. Since then, it has disbursed loans worth Rs 6,760 crores to small business owners like her mother.

The fintech company  provides unsecured loans to Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) within 24-48 hours and has helped over 1,25,000 business owners so far.

After completing a BA in computer science from Knox College in Illinois, USA, Hardika worked at Accenture in Chicago, Singapore, Sydney, and then back again in the US in San Francisco in financial services, technology and consulting for almost 19 years.

Her work brought her to India almost 10 years later, in the post liberalisation era. It was here that she found a big gap in financial accessibility.

She noticed a recurring challenge faced by people in India - access to capital.

The major credit gap, the consultant found, was in the ‘missing middle’, of people in need of loans in the range of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

She found that almost every small business owner had the same problem her mother faced several decades ago - lack of capital.

Determined to ensure that no one should have unfulfilled dreams like her mother, the 53-year-old decided to solve the problem.

“The biggest gap across tier 1, 2 and 3 cities was unsecured business lending, as most borrowers don’t have land or property to offer as collateral. I decided to focus on people in these cities who are on the fringe of inclusion,” she adds.

Kinara Capital vets its customers with the help of AI and machine learning, with the last mile delivery done by its officers.

They have 133 branches across 100 cities in the country, with assets under management of over Rs 3,170 crore.

The interest rates range from 20 to 32 percent on a reducing balance basis, with the average tenure ranging from 36 to 38 months.

“My mother could have been a big franchise owner had Kinara been present then. Let no other entrepreneur lose out on their potential due to lack of access to capital. Let there be no regrets, ifs and buts,” says Hardika.

Kinara Capital gives a special focus to women through their ‘HerVikas’ programme. It provides discounted business loans for women-owned MSMEs to help them take their businesses to the next level.