Bangladesh Angels raises 165k USD investment for Shadhin Fintech’s pre-seed round

Bangladesh Angels Network (BAN), the trailblazing angel investment network in Bangladesh, closed another pre-seed investment in Shadhin Fintech, Bangladesh's first peer to peer (P2P) lending and borrowing platform which also aims to be the leading P2P platform based credit evaluator in the country, states a press release.

P2P lending and borrowing platforms are booming in emerging markets and have become a multi-billion dollar industry that brings borrowers and lenders together on a sophisticated technology platform that allows the two parties to satisfy their respective financial needs.

Bangladesh has the 8th largest population in the world with over 165M people. However, more than half of its population still has low/no access to credit facilities. This results in a significantly high unbanked population looking for loans between Tk20,000 - Tk100,000. Shadhin Fintech is also the only true peer-to-peer lending platform in Bangladesh for the unbanked population and has been providing uncollateralized loans from peer investors. They are following full end-to-end matchmaking with investors & borrowers and have introduced their proprietary AI-powered credits-scoring engine to evaluate, assess, and maintain records for their users.

Kashfia Mahmud, CEO of Shadhin Fintech, explains her take on 2021 goals, "The investment we've secured via Bangladesh Angels Network, we aim to serve the unbanked and underserved population of Bangladesh: rural people, especially women, and MSMEs. We are working on developing financial products that cater to the particular needs of our target audience which have not been taken into account by most traditional financial institutions. At the core of our current activities is definitely further strengthening the technology we use for our platform, to make us easier to use and understand, driving further inclusivity among the communities." 

On behalf of the BAN investors, Arman Zahid expresses his enthusiasm for the investment, "I am excited to be a part of the fintech industry in Bangladesh. There continue to be opportunities to help the unserved and unbanked population of the country. Investing in ventures that are innovative, which also propel the development of our country, has always been a passion of mine. I thank  Bangladesh Angels Network for doing a brilliant job at ushering such opportunities and enabling these startups to strive".

Nirjhor Rahman (Bangladesh Angels), CEO of Bangladesh Angels adds, "We are excited to announce our first fintech deal in Shadhin. We were able to put together a global consortium of angels who have expertise across corporate, development, finance, technology, legal and entrepreneurship sectors, ensuring the company a strong foundation as they build their business model and introduce innovation in a staid industry."

Latest numbers: By Aug 2021, Shadhin had registered more than 50,000 downloads, with over Tk17 crore worth of requests from close to 10,000 customers.