Private equity-backed debt financier Northern Arc Capital Ltd has announced the appointment of Ashish Mehrotra as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, effective April 1.
Mehrotra will also serve as the Non-Executive Chairperson of Pragati Finserv, the microfinance subsidiary of Northern Arc Group and is the board member for Northern Arc Investment Managers, that houses our Alternate Investment Fund and Portfolio Management Service, the Northern Arc said in a statement.
Current CEO Kshama Fernandes will continue to be a part of the organization as a Non-Executive Director and designated as Non-Executive Vice Chairperson with effect from April 01, 2022, the company added.
“During my journey at Northern Arc Capital, we have focused on building a robust digital debt platform serving the underserved households and businesses. I am delighted to welcome Ashish Mehrotra as he takes over to build Northern Arc 2.0 into a holistic, technology-first financial services platform,” Fernandes said.
Prior to Northern Arc, Mehrotra was the MD and CEO of Niva Bupa Health Insurance (erstwhile Max Bupa Health Insurance) and has been a career Citi banker having spent 20 years to become the MD and retail banking head for Citibank India in the last 10 years of his stint at the foreign bank.
“We plan to incubate new-age digital businesses that will serve the next billion and emerging segments. And we will do this by leveraging on our core capabilities and building new competencies across technology, data, and analytics,” Mehrotra said on his appointment.
Ashish Mehrotra holds a post graduate degree in Master of Business Administration.
Chennai-based Northern Arc Capital (formerly IFMR Capital Finance) is a financial services platform set up primarily catering to the diverse credit requirements of under-served households and businesses in India.
Since inception in 2009, the Northern Arc Group has enabled financing for originator partners who have impacted over 54 million, largely women, and raised close to about Rs 1 trillion in financing for customers.
With a new chief, Northern Arc Capital plans to amplify its digital business, with data and technology at its core. It also plans to strengthen its leadership position in its core businesses and expand footprint across retail initiatives and digital platforms.
In process to list publicly, Northern Arc Capital’s initial public offering (IPO) will issue fresh equity shares of up to Rs 300 crore and do an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 36.52 million equity shares by shareholders and promoters.
Northern Arc is backed by investors such as LeapFrog, IIFL, Accion, Augusta Investments (known as Affirma Capital), Dvara Trust, Eight Roads and Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), which made its latest investment in September last year.
Over the past couple of years, the lender has also attracted debt financing from global development finance institutions (DFIs) and impact investors including the US International Development Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank, Calvert Impact Capital, and Dutch development Bank FMO.
Recently in February, Northern Arc Capital announced its plan to acquire Chennai-based microfinance business of S.M.I.L.E. Microfinance Ltd through a slump sale.
