The lender of small businesses in emerging markets raised $4.3 million in seed.

Saturday, May 20, 2023|

In a round led by early-stage backer TCG Crypto, Jia raised $4.3 million in seed funding and an additional $1 million commitment for on-chain liquidity, with participation from a number of funds. The idea is to provide affordable financing for micro-businesses, and when they repay, they become owners by getting token rewards.

The co-founder and CEO of JiaJia is with a trader. Marks says that once the token-system is fully established, the token can be claimed. It is possible for borrowers to use them as security for lower interest rates, higher loan amounts and more flexible loan terms. If you want to grow, you need more money and for longer durations, and this makes it difficult to serve a proper business use case.

The loans range in size from $200 to $5,000 and are competitively priced. Ilara Health, which supplies medical inventory to a network of over 2,000 small clinics, integrates into the apps of its local partners. We finance an inventory financing program for them because they don't want to deal with credit risk on their balance sheet. Marks.

Jia is one of the companies working to bridge the access-to-finance gap which impedes the growth of businesses in markets like Africa. According to data, small businesses in Africa face a $330 billion financing deficit. These businesses need to meet a number of other requirements before they can get a loan from a traditional lender. Marks said that what is exciting in what they are doing is opening up the world's capital to micro, small and medium-sized businesses, so they can receive affordable financing.

"Jia is not just providing financing, we are providing a path to economic resilience and this opportunity to build wealth in a new way that hasn't been done before.".