Accion, Pragati India boost Saija Finance with $4m

Around $2.2 million of the investment came from the Gateway Fund run by Accion, a global non-profit entity working in the microfinance sector, while Pragati contributed $2.3 million. The two investors now hold a 74.9% stake.

Saija was founded in 2008 by husband and wife team Shashi Ranjan Sinha, a finance professional, and Rashmi Sinha, a human resources expert. It employs 110 people.

The mergers and acquisitions Saija intends to undertake will be in districts bordering Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Currently the microfinance institution (MFI) operates in five districts of the relatively underdeveloped state of Bihar through seven branches.

Saija is seeking to raise further capital in six months' time, in order to boost its loan book from an expected INR350 million ($6.2 million) at the end of the current financial year to INR1 billion by March of next year and INR5 billion by March 2015.

Accion previously backed the MFI in 2009, as part of a deal which represented the investor's fourth transaction in India. It committed $500,000 for 49.5% of the then-start-up, which it had already been supporting since the previous year through its Accion Technical Advisors India unit.

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• Topics
• Financials
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Growth capital
• India
• Financial Services