Ashish Khandelia-led Certus Capital, which backs residential realty projects through its debt platform, Earnnest.me, has announced investments in two mid-market residential projects in the Mumbai market.
The real estate investment firm, which has a target to pump in about Rs 1,000 crore into the country’s property sector by the end of this fiscal, has invested about Rs 150 crore in the projects being developed by JSB Group and Dynamix Group, both based in Mumbai.
While JSB Group operates in the extended western suburbs of Mumbai, Dynamix Group’s projects are located across Mumbai and Goa.
While the individual investment made in the two projects was not disclosed, the real estate investor expects an aggregate turnover of Rs 750 crore from the two projects.
“These are institutionally assessed and diligenced deals, available to both individuals and institutions alike. We make and retain significant exposure in each of our investments and since inception of Earnnest.me nearly three years ago, each of our interest and principal payment has been on or ahead of schedule,” Khandelia said.
This announcement marks the closure of nine deals out of its debt platform. It has also fully exited two of them at net returns of about 15%.
Among other recent bets, Certus Capital, via the debt investment platform, invested about Rs 125 crore (around $15 million then) in May in a project being developed by Casagrand, a developer predominantly operational in south Indian markets, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Coimbatore.
The debt platform, in January, exited its debut investment in the affordable housing sector. While it did not disclose the details of the transaction, Certus Capital said the exit generated a 16.1% net return one year ahead of the scheduled maturity.
Last April, it invested Rs 80 crore (around $9.7 million then) in Aakasa, which was being developed by Techno Group, Fortune Realty and Gala in Mumbai’s Worli area. The project had a revenue potential of about Rs 350 crore.
The firm was also planning to launch its maiden alternative investment fund (AIF) last year, but shelved the plans to focus on the debt investment platform. However, last month, the founder said that the plans to launch the investment vehicle are being reconsidered with a corpus exceeding Rs 500 crore.
Founded in 2018, Certus was founded in 2018 by Khandelia. Its neo-financing platform, Earnnest.me, launched over two years ago, claims to have a 77% repeat investor rate.
It claims to offer a net pre-tax return of about 14-16% to its investors.