NEW DELHI: Aye Finance, the Capital G backed fintech lender, has raised Rs 107 crore as debt funding from Swiss based impact investor, BlueOrchard.
BlueOrchard has been supporting Aye in its mission to enable the financial inclusion of micro enterprises since May 2017 and has taken a total exposure of Rs 290 crore in the MSME lender.
Aye will utilize this latest round of funds to extend affordable and customised credit solutions to the base of the pyramid businesses of India and power their growth in to the new age India.
While the NBFC sector has been struggling to raise adequate funds for onlending, Aye has remained unaffected and continues to draw interest from investors globally as well as in India. Last month the fintech lender was in news when it announced raising Rs 125 core from the Dutch Development Bank FMO. In the current year Aye has raised over Rs 1140 crore in debt and equity from leading names including CapitalG, Falcon Edge, HDFC, ICICI, DCB Bank, other than FMO and BlueOrchard.
Aye has been taking rapid strides in transforming micro enterprise lending in India since its inception in 2014 and has provided INR 2700 crores worth of credit to over 1,96,000 grassroots businesses. It has an active customer base of over 1,30,000 and an AUM of Rs 1500 crore. This year the lender expanded its reach to micro enterprises in 173 cities in 18 Indian States.
BlueOrchard is a leading global impact investment manager, dedicated to fostering inclusive and climate-smart growth. BlueOrchard was founded in 2001, by initiative of the UN, as the world’s first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments. Today, BlueOrchard provides investors around the world with premium investment solutions, including credit, private equity, and sustainable infrastructure, as well as debt and equity financing to institutions in emerging and frontier markets. With a major global presence and offices on four continents, BlueOrchard has invested to date more than USD 5bn across 80 emerging and frontier markets, enabling tangible social and environmental impact.
Commenting on the latest fundraise, Sanjay Sharma, MD and Founder of Aye Finance, “This is the sixth round of funds we have received from BlueOrchard and I believe this demonstrates their comfort with and commitment to our business. Lending to micro enterprises has been a less travelled path for banks and financial companies and hence it is satisfying to have established an innovative paradigm of our lending approach. Aye team has demonstrated the robustness of our cluster based lending approach having enabled the inclusion of close to 2 lac micro enterprises using this approach”
Normunds Mizis, Chief Credit Officer at BlueOrchard, added, “India is an important market for BlueOrchard, and one that we have been actively investing in for almost 20 years. We have been working with Aye Finance since 2017. This additional funding is testament to our conviction in the company’s mission to bridge the gap between loans offered by MFIs and those available from commercial banks, offering MSMEs across India access to attractive credit solutions.”
By leveraging the advancements in technology and through its deep-rooted understanding of various industry clusters across India, Aye has been living up to its vision of creating a more inclusive India.
