Reaction to the Union Budget 2022 – Ankur Bhageria, CEO & Co-founder, CashFlo
Following is the response of Mr Ankur Bhageria, CEO and Founder, CashFlo – “As a founder of a startup that is also an MSME business, the Union Budget for FY22-23 is positive for both groups. The COVID pandemic is not yet over, and the liquidity support and incentives provided by the government needed to be sustained into this year as well.
The extension of the ECLGS to March 2023 will be especially welcomed by the MSME sector, which constitutes 95% of ECLGS borrowers. CGTMSE Revamp and Announcement of MSME RAMP are also welcome moves. MSM Es have been hit hard by the pandemic, with well over 60% of them having faced increase in credit terms during COVID so efforts to speed up payments and move to a 100% e-bill system for central govt. procurement will go a long way towards releasing liquidity to vendors. It is important to both create liquidity for MSMEs as well as ensure that it reaches those most in need, and is good to see both aspects covered in this budget.
Extension of tax incentives for startups and new manufacturing companies are also welcome moves, but would have liked to see more support for the startup industry, especially with respect to taxation of ESOPs.
Lastly, the national tele mental health program for counselling is a fantastic step by the government in recognising and providing support to those who need it. This goes a long way towards reducing the stigma around mental health.”
Appended with this email is a brief note on CashFlo and Ankur Bhageria for your reference.
About CashFlo
Founded in 2017, by Ankur Bhageria and Dushyant Agarwal, CashFlo has built India’s first integrated, multi-fun der platform that offers a one-stop solution for financing the entire supply chain for corporates. Its range of in novative solutions helps vendors and dealers get access to affordable short-term capital at the click of a button, and enables corporates to optimize their working capital, improve bottom-line and increase topline materially by enabling flow of funds to the supply chain. CashFlo works with India’s leading corporates across industries including most of India’s largest business houses such as Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Vedanta, Arvind Limit ed, Haldia Petrochemicals, and 50,000+ strong SME network, growing exponentially. CashFlo has a lineage of 25+ years in Financial services and the group has successfully disbursed over ₹15,000 crore in capital so far. Cas hFlo’s platform combines full integration with all major TReDS platforms, cutting edge AI/ML based rate determination engine, best-in-class vendor digital onboarding processes and 100+ years of combined enterprise transformation experience. CashFlo is backed by leading investor Elevation Capital, and angel investors Ashish Iyer, Anjali Bansal, Kartik Sheth and Arpan Sheth, among others. CashFlo raised Series A funding led by Elevati on Capital in 2019.
Brief Profile:
Ankur Bhageria, Founder & CEO, CashFlo Ankur Bhageria is the Founder and CEO of CashFlo. He comes with a decade of experience in Fintech, advising a range of leading Banks and NBFCs on a wide variety of business topics that include Supply Chain Financing, Digital strategy in Financial Services, New Business Build, Salesforce digitization and Large Scale Transformation, among others. Prior to founding CashFlo, Ankur worked with Boston Consulting Group and J.P. Morgan. He was part of the founding team at BCG India’s Technology Adv antage Office and a recipient of BCG Innovation Award. Ankur holds an MBA degree from Indian School of Busi ness (ISB) and a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from University of Mumbai.
