Fintech for the People Season 8, Episode 3 featuring Neal Thakker, Founder and CEO of Magma 

Neal Thakker, Founder and CEO of Magma, joins Amee Parbhoo, Managing Partner of Accion Ventures, on the podcast this week for an exploration of  the massive opportunity that exists to modernize India's current manufacturing sector. Against the backdrop of a global supply chain shift, Neal explains how Indian factories are poised for huge growth but are often held back by traditional, inefficient practices. He shares his journey from working in supply chain management to founding Magma, a comprehensive platform designed to solve the core operational and financial challenges facing small and medium size factories. 

Neal details how Magma functions as an end-to-end industrial solutions provider, moving beyond a simple marketplace model. The platform seeks to address critical pain points by bundling services like specialty raw material procurement, green energy solutions, waste management, and logistics. By embedding finance directly into these workflows, Magma helps factories overcome issues like blocked working capital and rigid minimum order quantities. This integrated approach not only improves day-to-day operations but also tackles the biggest challenge for any factory owner: improving capacity utilization. Looking ahead, Neal discusses his vision for expanding Magma's embedded finance offerings to include smarter credit underwriting and innovative insurance products tailored for the manufacturing industry. 

Episode highlights: 

• The emergence of opportunities for India's manufacturing sector. 
• Solving the key challenges for small and medium sized factories: unreliable supply chains, blocked working capital, and a lack of digitization. 
• Magma’s model of bundling diverse services, from raw materials to waste management, - to become an integrated part of a factory’s operations. 
• Using embedded finance to eliminate restrictive minimum order quantities and free up cash flow. 
• Focusing on capacity utilization as the most critical metric for a factory's success. 
• Building relationships that foster trust and drive digital adoption in a traditional industry. 
• The future of embedded finance in manufacturing, including smarter underwriting and tailored insurance products. 
• Building resilient teams by prioritizing deep industry expertise for key operational roles. 
• Transforming India's industrial backbone to compete on a global scale. 

To learn more about Magma, visit their website. Learn more about Accion Ventures on our website and LinkedIn.