TPG leads $100m round for India's Five Star

Existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (MSPEA), and Sequoia Capital also joined the round, according to a statement. The investment will be used to support Five Star’s growth plans.

Five Star was founded in 1984 and specializes in small ticket business and housing loans, typically lending up to INR400,000 ($5,800) to businesses and INR700,000 to home buyers. The company is present in six states, with over 150 branch locations and 1,450 employees, and had about INR12.2 billion in assets under management as of June 2018.

Norwest and Sequoia led Five Star’s INR3.3 billion Series C round last year, with participation by MSPEA and Matrix Partners. Matrix was Five Star’s first institutional investor, having provided two rounds in 2014 and 2015.

“Our 30 years of experience as a hands-on partner to our customers has led us to establish a business model that directly addresses the needs and risks unique to their businesses,” said D.  Lakshmipathy, chairman and managing director at Five Star. “In TPG we’ve found a partner that is fundamentally aligned with our mission to empower India’s under-banked segment.”

TPG has a substantial portfolio of financial services assets across Asia, with recent investments including the financial services unit of Chinese search giant Baidu – recently spun out as Du Xiaoman – and Indian microfinance lender Janalakshmi Financial Services.

In addition, Chinese online consumer finance platform VCredit, a portfolio company of the firm’s middle market investment platform TPG Growth, raised HK$1.2 billion ($152 million) in its Hong Kong IPO earlier this year.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Expansion
• India
• NBFCs
• Financial Services
• TPG Capital
• Norwest Venture Partners
• Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia
• Sequoia Capital