Cashinvoice Revolutionizes Supply Chain Finance by Unlocking Trapped Cash for MSMEs
In the massive engine of India’s economy, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the pistons. Yet, these businesses often stall not because they lack orders, but because their capital is "trapped" in long payment cycles. Arun Poojari, a veteran of corporate banking, co-founded Cashinvoice to solve this fundamental mismatch. By building a digital invoice marketplace that turns a 60-day waiting period into a 3-minute approval, Poojari is ensuring that MSMEs get access to their own money when they need it most.
Arun Poojari spent nearly two decades in the upper echelons of Indian finance, with leadership stints at ICICI Bank and Tata Capital. As a founding member of Tata Capital’s NBFC business, he saw firsthand how the "anchor" corporates had easy access to credit while the smaller suppliers at the end of the chain were left begging for collateral-free loans. In 2018, alongside his longtime colleagues Shrinivas Kasar and Mahesh Kalyanpur, he launched Cashinvoice to democratize supply chain finance.
The Problem of "Trapped" Cash
MSMEs rightfully own the money for the goods they've already sold. However, market circumstances often mean they have to wait 30, 60, or even 90 days for receivables. This "stuck" money hits their working capital and prevents them from taking new orders. Cashinvoice unlocks this money at a fair cost, without requiring additional collateral or personal guarantees.
The Problem: The "Collateral Trap" of Traditional Banking
For a small business owner, a bank's demand for collateral is often a dead end. Their homes, offices, and warehouses are usually already mortgaged. When they need working capital—which is essentially a loan against money they are already owed—they are met with truckloads of paperwork and a 30-to-60-day processing cycle.
Traditional Bank vs. Cashinvoice Marketplace
Traditional Bank: 30–60 day processing cycle, heavy physical documentation, collateral requirements, and personal guarantees. A high-stress, low-transparency experience.
Cashinvoice: 3-minute digital journey, 100% consent-based (no physical papers), unsecured (no collateral), and money in the account within a few hours.
"It's rightfully their money," Arun emphasizes. "They should not be struggling to get their own money back into the system. We ensure all stakeholders get paid on time at a right cost."
The Solution: A 450-Variable Scoring Engine
Cashinvoice is a marketplace that connects buyers, sellers, and lenders through a high-tech digital layer. The secret to their speed is a sophisticated digital scorecard that analyzes more than 450 variables in real-time. Instead of manual reference checks, the system uses alternative data via Government-backed frameworks.
How to Unlock Cash in 3 Minutes
- Consent Step: The customer provides digital consent for their Bureau, GST, and Bank statement data.
- Automated Analysis: The scoring model evaluates the customer's position within their specific corporate ecosystem.
- Instant Sanction: Within three minutes, the user knows if their proposal is accepted or rejected.
- Rapid Disbursal: Once sanctioned, the money typically hits the bank account in a couple of hours.
Scaling Through Resilience: 20x Growth in 2 Years
Cashinvoice’s journey has been anything but linear. In their first year, they did a throughput of ₹120 crores. In the second year, they achieved a **20x jump**, reaching ₹2,000 crores. This growth happened while navigating two massive COVID cycles where manufacturing and trading were completely shut down.
"We only survive when trading happens in the market," Arun explains. "During COVID, we had to have extreme patience. We had to trust our intuition, keep the team motivated, and reassure ourselves that there would be a sunrise tomorrow."
Cashinvoice Scale & Milestones
- ₹2,000 Crores Disbursed: Achieved in year two of operations.
- ₹10,000 Crores Target: The goal for the upcoming year as they scale toward a 10x jump.
- 25-Member Team: A lean, specialized team with over 100 combined years of supply chain experience.
- 100% Digital: Reaching the smallest participants in the chain on day one without physical presence.
Transitioning from Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur
Arun’s path was unique. For years, he operated as an "intrapreneur" within institutions like Tata Capital, building their supply chain business from scratch. In 2018, he realized that the benefits he was providing to one bank could be passed on to the entire Indian ecosystem if he went independent.
"Implementation is more important than the strategy part of it," Arun notes. "What you strategize is linear, but what you implement is curvy. We struggled with the tech in the first year, but once we moved from outsourcing to an in-house team, the real revolution started."
Founder's Lesson: Play Fair
In negotiations, Arun believes in leaving "something on the table" for the other party. "We don't believe in cornering an opponent. We want a win-win situation for all stakeholders—the supplier, the buyer, and the lender. Fairness builds a trustworthy brand."
The Future: Toward a Marketplace for All
Cashinvoice is not just a single-product company; it is a full-lifecycle supply chain finance platform. From procurement to distribution and retail, they aim to be the primary marketplace for the entire trading and manufacturing community in India.
"We want to reach the last leg of the chain," Arun says. "The purpose is the customer. When a customer tells us they can no longer rely on a bank but they can rely on us because the money comes back in three hours—that is what makes us kicked up about this journey."
Key Lessons for Success
1. Patience is the Key
Entrepreneurship has no shortcuts. Success comes to those who can wait out the bad seasons and keep paddling under the surface while staying calm on top.
2. Leverage Your Core
Arun and his co-founders stuck to their core expertise: supply chain. Because they knew the domain deeply, they could build a value proposition that customers believed in immediately.
3. Use Investment Bankers Wisely
For those trying to raise funds, Arun recommends getting professional help. "Getting the services of an investment banker helps in reaching the right VCs and ensures the interactions are meaningful rather than just idea-sharing."
Cashinvoice is proving that technology can turn "trapped cash" into "growth capital." By democratizing access to finance for the MSME sector, Arun Poojari and his team are building a faster, fairer, and more liquid future for Indian business.
About the Guest
Arun Poojari is the Co-founder and CEO of Cashinvoice. With over 17 years of experience in corporate banking and supply chain finance, he has held senior roles at ICICI Bank and Tata Capital. An alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Arun is an expert in managing mid-market and emerging businesses. Under his leadership, Cashinvoice has grown into one of India’s largest digital invoice marketplaces, helping thousands of MSMEs unlock working capital.
Cashinvoice is a Mumbai-based fintech company that provides a digital marketplace for supply chain finance. By integrating with corporate ecosystems and leveraging alternative data, the platform offers instant, collateral-free financing solutions to suppliers and distributors, bridging the credit gap for India's MSME sector.