LGT leads $10m Series B for India's Aye Finance

Existing investors SAIF Partners and Accion, a global non-profit organization that supports MFIs, also participated in the round, according to YourStory. The two firms committed $1 million to the company last year. Aye Finance will use the new capital to expand into more cities in India and to improve its technology platform and credit assessment tools.

Founded in 2013, Aye Finance, a registered non-banking finance company (NBFC), provides loans starting at INR50,000 ($730) to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which it sees as lacking financing options from the traditional finance industry. Recipients must be profitable, with annual turnover of INR100,000-10 million. The firm focuses on companies in the manufacturing, trading and services sectors.

Currently the company operates 31 branches, 29 of which are in northern India. It plans to focus on southern and western India as it grows, and hopes to open 30 more branches in these regions by the end of 2017. It claims to have a loan portfolio of more than INR80 million, which it plans to grow to over INR200 million over the next five years, with a non-performing asset rate of less than 1%.

Indian MFIs and NBFCs have attracted considerable interest from private capital in recent years due to their potential to reach populations who are underserved by the country's traditional banks. Investments this year include a INR3.3 billion commitment to Janalakshmi Financial Services by CDC Group and a INR1.4 billion investment by the International Finance Corporation in Grameen Koota. LGT also participated in a INR930 million Series B round in April for education-focused NBFC Varthana led by Kaizen Private Equity and Zephyr Peacock India.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Early-stage
• India
• SAIF Partners
• LGT Capital Partners
• Financial Services
• NBFCs