Bengaluru-based school finance company Thirumeni Finance Pvt. Ltd, which operates under the Varthana brand, has raised $7 million (around Rs 56 crore) from MicroVest, a global investment firm based out of the United States.
The investment from MicroVest will be deployed towards affordable education in rural India and providing loans to private schools at affordable rates. This funding also aims at aiding and supporting schools to recover from the disruptions caused by covid.
“After two years of battling COVID-19, schools have shown positive signs of growth and sustenance. Our aim is to serve more than 10,000 schools by the end of this financial year,” said Varthana co-founder and chief executive officer, Steve Hardgrave.
Established in 2013, Varthana has a presence in 15 states through 40 branches. Varthana aims to transform education in India by catering to needs of affordable private schools through financial assistance and academic support. Varthana operates in the deeper geographies of India and works among EWS (economically weaker sections), low and middle-income groups.
In 2016, the company raised Rs 93 crore in a Series B round led by Kaizen Private Equity and Zephyr Peacock India. Its existing investors, Elevar Equity, LGT Venture Philanthropy and Omidyar Network had also participated. In 2017, it raised $3 million from Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.
MicroVest Capital Management, LLC (MicroVest) is an asset manager that specializes in allocating private debt capital to responsible financial institutions that lend to unbanked or underbanked borrowers and/or small businesses in emerging and frontier markets.
The firm has a 19-year track record of investing in microfinance institutions (MFIs) and small and medium enterprise (SME) financial institutions whose interests are aligned with the borrowers and communities they serve. Since its founding in 2003, MicroVest claims to have disbursed more than $1 billion to over 200 institutions in 60 emerging and frontier countries. MicroVest is wholly owned by DAI Global, LLC.
