{"id":5151,"date":"2020-11-11T14:45:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T09:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/?p=5151"},"modified":"2025-03-05T08:28:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T02:58:01","slug":"cash-advance-working-capital-business-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/business-banking\/cash-advance-working-capital-business-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"How Namaste Farm Scaled Operations with Razorpay Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"An age-old proverb, one that we learned in school, is – Necessity is the mother of <\/span>invention. However, its variant, one that we\u2019ve learned in this modern, tech-driven age is –<\/span>\u00a0Necessity is the mother of innovation.<\/span>\r\n\r\nInnovation is the key to success, we know this. There is a lot of merit in amending <\/span>existing processes for the better, and Santhosh Bandila knew this as well. Especially in <\/span>times of COVID-19.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSanthosh is one of those successful entrepreneurs who have been able to innovate in <\/span>the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown to provide a solution to a key problem that people <\/span>faced during that time. And he was not only able to innovate, but also scale with the help\u00a0<\/span>of Razorpay Capital<\/a>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s the story of Resquiller Technologies and how they endeavoured to provide fresh <\/span>groceries in Hyderabad during the lockdown.<\/span>\r\n

Say namaste to Namaste Farm<\/span><\/h2>\r\nOne of the key problems that households in urban areas in Hyderabad faced during the <\/span>lockdown was getting access to fresh grocery for their daily nutritional needs. Santhosh\u00a0<\/span>and Resquiller Technologies launched Namaste Farm<\/a>, a vegetable delivery app, to solve <\/span>this very problem.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cGrocery shopping was never an activity I really liked,\u201d says Santhosh. \u201cI started to dread it during the lockdown. Each excursion became a tactical mission to get in and out of retail stores as quickly as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nSanthosh believes that food should be accessible by quality selection and hygiene. The Indian grocery market is dominated by close to 12 million local grocery stores, with most Indian families preferring to purchase groceries from these kirana stores<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThere were many reasons that hindered the growth of online grocers. A lack of trust among consumers when it came to receiving fresh produce was a major reason, according to Santhosh. \u201cNo e-grocery platform had found decent traction in fresh farm produce, because managing the supply chain in this category is cumbersome.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nThis was a tough nut to crack. One that Santhosh did with Namaste Farms.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWith Namaste Farm, they were able to deliver fresh produce within 24 hours in all major\u00a0<\/span>areas of Hyderabad. \u201cWe made a difference for Hyderabad citizens because, when\u00a0<\/span>compared to bigger players in the space, we provided superior quality in both produce\u00a0<\/span>and service,\u201d says Santhosh. \u201cYes, we reached apartments where regular deliveries were\u00a0<\/span>difficult. But more than anything else, our produce was always fresh.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nIn October this year, the Hyderabad-based Namaste Farm announced its entry into the online grocery delivery space for a few pin codes in Bengaluru.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe Namaste Farm team hand-picked vegetables and fruits before delivery to ensure their customers receive hygienic products. These are sourced directly from farmers.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAnd the entire process was made seamless by using Razorpay, one of the best payment gateways in India<\/a>, to make payments convenient and easy for their customers.\r\n\r\nBut tracking payments was still not easy, given that they had a huge number of\u00a0<\/span>customers from all over the city. This is where Razorpay Smart Collect<\/a> came to their\u00a0<\/span>rescue. With Smart Collect, Santhosh and his team could create customer-identifiers with <\/span>different UPI descriptions for each customer. This made it extremely easy for them to\u00a0<\/span>track and follow up on payments.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhile the demand for grocery delivery made life challenging for customers in the early weeks of the pandemic, it has also boosted business for companies Namaste Farm.<\/span>\r\n
Get Working Capital to Grow Your Business<\/a><\/div>\r\n \r\n

Growing with Razorpay Capital<\/span><\/h2>\r\nOne of the most important aspects of providing fresh produce every day is procuring it in\u00a0<\/span>time for the planned deliveries. Namaste Farm was able to do that by\u00a0<\/span>associating with multiple vendors. To ensure the procurement happened smoothly, they\u00a0<\/span>had to make payments to their vendors in advance.<\/span>\r\n\r\nBut they themselves had to wait for 3 to 5 working days to realise the digital payments<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>made to them by their customers. \u201cThis was sort of a period of lull where we were not\u00a0<\/span>able to more stock or invest further in our business. But waiting for payments to come to\u00a0<\/span>us in the regular cycle was also not the solution,\u201d says Santhosh.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cNamaste Farm generates so much online traffic and has grown substantially since the pandemic began, which means that we simply have to cater to this burgeoning customer base,\u201d he says.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe solution turned out to be Cash Advance and Working Capital Loans<\/a> from Razorpay.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWith Razorpay Cash Advance, Resquiller Technologies were able to quickly borrow <\/span>money that they needed to acquire stock and fix logistical issues.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs the name suggests, Cash Advance<\/a> is a form of instant additional money that a business can acquire on the basis of the digital payments they are expected to receive. This loan is then repaid through the digital payment settlements and can be taken again as many times as needed up to the approved limit.<\/span>\r\n\r\n[bctt tweet=”Cash Advance is a form of instant additional money that a business can acquire on the basis of the digital payments they are expected to receive. ” username=”Razorpay”]\r\n\r\n\u201cOn peak days like Saturdays and Sundays, when our orders typically saw a spike and <\/span>our capital was engaged, the Cash Advance facility gave you immense comfort,\u201d says <\/span>Santhosh. \u201cThe availability of instant cash when we needed it was priceless.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\nApart from that, Razorpay\u2019s Working Capital Loans also helped them onboard small-scale <\/span>vendors and grow their supply chain. For a business that\u2019s scaling, dipping only into their slim profits is not a sustainable way to grow. What a business ideally needs is easy and <\/span>quick access to working capital loans.<\/span>\r\n\r\nTo enhance their supply chain, Namaste Farm needed to pay small-scale vendors in <\/span>advance. This ensured quality produce as well as additional stock to meet spike in <\/span>orders. They were able to make these advance payments by accessing <\/span>Working Capital Loans from Razorpay.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSanthosh says, \u2018Our vendors were also happy. They gave us discounts as well for <\/span>receiving early payments.\u201d With parts of their customer payments directly going as <\/span>repayments for the loans, Santhosh could allocate a larger amount of time and <\/span>bandwidth on growing his business.<\/span>\r\n

The road ahead<\/span><\/h2>\r\nIn the coming times, Santhosh is planning to say \u201cNamaste\u201d to other cities like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and potentially, even Chennai.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cRazorpay has offered us a fantastic option in the form of their Capital products, in addition to payments, ensuring the growth for our new venture,\u201d he concludes.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDo you run a growing business that requires working capital regularly? Get in touch with us and ensure you enjoy uninterrupted growth.<\/em>\r\n
Get Working Capital to Grow Your Business<\/a><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Razorpay\u2019s Working Capital Loans helped Namaste Farm onboard small-scale vendors and grow their supply chain to provide fresh produce to customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":5152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,131,26],"tags":[94,83,114,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-5151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-banking","8":"category-customer-stories","9":"category-payments","10":"tag-cash-advance","11":"tag-payment-gateway","12":"tag-smart-collect","13":"tag-working-capital"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21184,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions\/21184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razorpay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}