Mannjal Raises ₹17.5 Crore Seed Funding And Rewrites MSME Lending in India

Mannjal Raises ₹17.5 Crore Seed Funding — And Rewrites MSME Lending in India

In a fintech ecosystem buzzing with ambition and possibility, a fresh chapter is being written — thanks to Mannjal. On 3 December 2025, Mannjal announced that it had raised ₹17.5 crore (~US$2.1 million) in a seed funding round led by Arali Ventures and B Capital, with participation from Sparrow Capital and Gemba Capital.

This isn’t just a check — it’s a signal that digital credit, reimagined for India’s MSME backbone, is gaining serious investor faith.

The Hero: MSMEs & Lenders Hungry for Better Credit Infrastructure

Small businesses — from neighbourhood shops to micro-enterprises and affordable-housing developers — are the backbone of India’s economy. But for many, accessing loans remains a challenge: traditional lending is often slow, paperwork-heavy, and inflexible.

On the other side, banks, NBFCs and fintech lenders want to scale credit rapidly, especially for segments like MSME, agri, affordable housing and priority-sector lending — but manual workflows, fragmented data sources, and legacy underwriting slow them down.

The outcome? Opportunity lost. Growth deferred. Entrepreneurs stuck.

The Problem: Legacy Lending Infrastructure Doesn’t Fit Today’s Needs

Even as demand for credit grows, many financial institutions struggle to:

• Originate loans at scale across remote geographies.

• Assess credit risk quickly and fairly, especially for borrowers without formal credit history.

• Manage operations — documentation, field data collection, compliance — efficiently.

This mismatch slows down disbursements, increases cost and risk, and restricts credit flow for underserved segments.

In short: the existing infrastructure is not built for the modern, diverse, fast-moving Indian borrower.

The Guide: Mannjal — Reimagining Lending for 2025 and Beyond

Founded in 2023 by Prashant Adurty, Aman Bhargava and Harshit Lingamneni, Mannjal is not a traditional lender. Instead, it is a full-stack lending platform that empowers financial institutions — banks, NBFCs, fintech lenders — to distribute priority-sector, impact-linked, and MSME-focused credit products at scale.

Mannjal’s value lies in building the infrastructure behind credit — digital + physical data collection, borrower profiling, credit decisioning, underwriting workflows, compliance, operations. With its stack, lenders can run custom workflows across risk, operations, and business teams — dramatically reducing time to decision and disbursement.

According to the company, lenders using Mannjal have achieved 50–75% faster turnaround times and sanction ratios of 85–90%.

The Plan: Expand Lender Network, Accelerate Product Development, Drive Financial Inclusion

With the fresh infusion of ₹17.5 crore, Mannjal plans to:

• Expand its lender network — bringing more banks, NBFCs and originators onto its platform.

• Accelerate product development — building tools and workflows that make credit more accessible, especially in underserved & priority-sector segments.

In short: to become the plumbing behind scalable, inclusive lending — and support growth across India’s MSME, agri, affordable-housing and social-impact financing needs.

The Impact So Far: ₹1,000 Cr Disbursed, 75+ Lenders Onboard

In just over 18 months — even before this funding — Mannjal claims its platform has already helped facilitate disbursements amounting to ~₹1,000 crore, across unsecured business loans, loans against property, and affordable housing finance.

Today, more than 75 lenders are working with Mannjal — a sign that the approach is resonating.

The Vision: A Future Where Credit Barriers Are Gone

With the latest funding round, Mannjal is moving toward its long-term vision: enabling credit access for millions of small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs — especially those underserved by legacy finance. Their goal: make credit distribution fast, fair, and frictionless.

In the broader ambition of financial inclusion in India, Mannjal aspires to be the invisible bridge — connecting capital with entrepreneurs, helping lenders scale, and unlocking growth for the backbone of India’s economy.

Why This Funding Matters — For the Ecosystem, Not Just the Startup

• Investor confidence: Leading VCs like Arali Ventures and B Capital backing a credit-infrastructure play shows growing faith in fintech infra — not just consumer or retail fintech.

• Scalability: Instead of clone-after-clone lending apps, Mannjal builds tools that help existing lenders scale, which could mean faster adoption and wider impact.

• Financial inclusion: MSMEs, agri-businesses, affordable-housing players — often underserved by traditional banks — get a better shot at credit, which can drive real socio-economic change.

• Systemic upgrade: If Mannjal succeeds, it could help modernize credit underwriting and operations across India — changing how lending works at scale.

Final Thoughts

Mannjal’s ₹17.5 crore seed round is more than a milestone — it’s a turning point. As capital flows in, so does the possibility of re-imagined lending infrastructure — efficient, inclusive, scalable.

For lenders, Mannjal offers a shortcut to growth. For entrepreneurs, it promises access. For India, it represents a step toward bridging the credit gap that often stifles ambition.

If you’re following India’s fintech and MSME story, Mannjal is one to watch