Low-key Leadership Works
Founded in 2017 by Pallavi Shrivastava and Himanshu Chandra, Progcap has been sailing through the tough funding and economic headwinds in the startup ecosystem. The startup has raised over $100 million since its inception.
Working at the intersection of software and financial services, the brand aims to be the first full-stack retailer-focused digital bank. It digitises, automates and eases capital movement across the supply chain for small and medium-sized businesses that have remained excluded from the formal financial ecosystem.
Sharing Progcap’s secret to success, Shrivastava, Co-founder and Director, says, “We have been focused heavily on the core and building for long-term profitability. We have heavily emphasised building robust systems, controls, and governance in place while ensuring customer retention.”
Capitalising On Credit
When asked about the biggest challenge the startup has faced, Shrivastava replies, “Being the first player to solve the working capital financing needs of this segment, we found ourselves competing with informal credit and a set way of doing business. We soon learned that the customers we were targeting were not easy to switch, which led us to create a customised, flexible product that was closer to their cash flow cycles."
She adds, “We also faced challenges in convincing our capital supply partners and investors that this could be a large enough market and that we could solve it with a nuanced and well-designed product. Supply challenges were also a hurdle as we were trying to balance the expectations of our partners while ensuring a uniform customer experience.”
Low-key Leadership
Leadership is the key to building a successful brand. “Despite facing turbulence, our continued focus remains on growing our people and customers,” Shrivastava explains. She says that despite all the challenges the brand had faced, what did not change was the customer trust it had and its teams’ optimism.
The year 2022 happened to be one of the most challenging years that the startup ecosystem had seen in the past decade. However, unlike its competitors, Progcap secured $40 million in June 2022. This indicates that the brand’s unit economics was spot on. In terms of business growth, it reported a threefold increase last fiscal year compared to FY21, and on top of that, it became profitable in Q3 of the last fiscal.
