Bengaluru-based Yellow Metal on Wednesday secures USD 3 million in its seed funding round. The investment was led by MSA Novo, a multi-stage venture capital firm along with participation from Spiral Ventures, a Japanese VC firm and existing investors WaterBridge Ventures and Java Capital

The fresh funds will help expand technology team operations across 25 new markets in and outside of Karnataka. 

They will further invest in strengthening their proprietary loan management system built for mobile phones. 

“India has made great strides with UPI in solving seamless payments; however, the other half of the battle is enabling widespread consumer credit. In India where credit scores aren't commonplace, gold is often used as collateral for asset-backed lending, especially in rural areas, which own more than 70 per cent of gold in the country. Yellow metal enables these households to access cheaper credit at scale by combining existing offline networks of agents with technology," said Prakhar Khanduja of MSA Novo. 

Prior to this, Yellow Metal raised USD 580 K, led by Waterbridge Ventures and Java Capital. The company is headquartered in Bangalore, India and currently operates in seven towns within Karnataka state, including Chintamani, Chikkaballapura, Kolar, Dodaballapura, Malur, Hoskote and Sidlaghatta.