Beams Fintech Fund is the first-ever dedicated Growth Capital Fintech Fund in India, which invests in businesses operating at the convergence of the financial services and technology space. The platform concentrates on generating significant value for its portfolio companies and is considering expanding globally and views United Arab Emirates (UAE) well positioned to be an international hub for the Gulf, North and Eastern African regions.
Beams is one of the largest FDI investor, trading and remittance partners in India, while the UAE is well-equipped to deliver the required capital and infrastructure to strengthen fintech companies out of India.
Institutions such as Shuaa Capital PSC, Mubadala, Emaar, ADQ, ADIC, ADIA, Etisalat, banks, and others have been functioning in India for some time and can work with Beams and its portfolio companies to build a larger and stronger Fintech economy between the two countries which would foster further modernisation and development.
Wise moment
Given the favourable demographic factors, the conducive regulatory framework driven ahead by the RBI, the CEPA, and historic affiliation between the two countries, this is a wise moment for investors and institutions in the region considering building a Fintech portfolio to expand geographically by evaluating the latest opportunities flowing from India.
India is the third-leading Fintech market worldwide following the US and China in terms of the number of start-ups and Unicorns, as well as capital financed .
In addition to a target capacity of USD 120 million and a greenshoe option, Beams’ strategy is to invest USD 15 to 20 million in growth stages, Series B and C rounds headed by their top-notch founders. Beams follows an extremely healthy co-investment approach towards investing and actively presents co-investment opportunities to its LPs.
Beams’ concentrated portfolio
Beams intends to develop a concentrated portfolio of a dozen fintech companies in a market at present estimated at over USD 80 billion and expected to touch over USD 250 billion by 2030.
Beams is being unveiled by India’s earliest and largest integrated incubator, Venture Catalysts, that also has 9Unicorns which is India’s leading accelerator fund and a USD 120 million early-stage sector-agnostic accelerator fund in its portfolio.
Beams Fintech Fund, one of India’s first growth-stage fintech funds, is co-founded by Fintech veterans Sagar Agarvwal and Founders of Venture Catalysts – Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha, and Gaurav Jain. In the Middle Eastern region, Deepak Ahuja, Senior Vice President, and Chief Revenue Officer of Sehteq, has been chosen as the founding member and Fintech specialist partner.
Deep experience
Asuman Dayican Abdullatif has additionally been enlisted by the platform as Venture Partner. Sudhanshu Garg will be working as an Institutional Advisor for the Middle east region.
The founding team of Beams has profound experience of over 20 years of investing in and building 300-plus businesses comprising financial services and fintech firms, such as BharatPe, Impact Guru, Esskay, Dukaan, Flobiz, Centrum, OTO, Suryoday, Capital, GetVantage, Klub, LiquiLoans, LenDenClub, and Junio.
Beams has already begun financing from its Fund and has financed Niyo, India’s leading Digital Banking platform along with Lightrock and Accel. Beams is similarly fulfilling its subsequent investment which is in the supply chain finance space alongside Google, Tiger Global, Sequoia, and Creations.
Beams’ Founder-first approach
Beams has a founder-first approach and a dedicated strategy of presenting founders with ecosystem support and capital to build larger, lucrative fintech firms. The company offers a network of local and International Banks, Fintech’s, Insurance firms, NBFCs, Mentors and Advisors to not only access capital at affordable rates but also to accelerate the go-to-market strategy of its portfolio companies in India and the Middle Eastern region.
With over 2.6 million members and 30 percent population share, Indians constitute the major expatriate community in the UAE and turn out to be the natural entry point for Beams’ portfolio firms. Middle East Banks, NBFCs, and huge tech founders can become part of Beams ecosystems to support the Middle East Fintech ecosystems.
Underlining the prospects in the Fintech sector Sagar Agarvwal, Co-founder and Partner, Beams stated that the Fintech is ingesting an increasingly larger slice of the software chart. The company is in fintech 3.0 right now globally, with the first wave of payments and lending firms having obtained a substantial amount of capital which is now shifting across segments. Veteran professionals and high-quality founders are shifting out from bigger companies to target newer categories to solve the long-tail financial services demand worldwide.
Tech adoption
With higher adoption of technology and growing interest from banks and FIs in UAE looking to collaborate on technology, product creation, and partnerships with Fintech’s, this would be the right moment to bring brands from India. Indian fintechs can not only offer technology partnerships but also build greater outcomes in the region by the acquisition of domestic fintech companies, said Agwarwal