Private debt fund manager Northern Arc Investment Managers (NAIM), on Thursday announced that it has raised Rs 65 crore (around $7.9 million) for its eighth fund, from the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO).
The Northern Arc Impact India Fund (NAIIF) will be used to support and address the funding gaps for impact enterprises (IE), Northern Arc said in a release.
NAIIF, a Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-registered category-II AIF (alternative investment fund), has a total corpus of Rs 700 crore and has raised capital from marquee investors, including domestic and international development financial institutions, global impact firms, domestic financial institutions, banks, corporate treasuries and domestic and global family offices.
Blue Earth Capital, Netherlands-based Anthos Fund & Asset Management; and Calvert Impact Capital – an institutional impact investor based in the United States are some of the notable investors which participated in the first close. The fund has a greenshoe option of an additional Rs 350 crore.
Since its inception in 2009, the Northern Arc Group has raised close to over Rs 1 lakh crore in financing for customers. NAIIF has already deployed 100% of its commitments across 30 investments in impact-focused segments such as financial inclusion, agritech, and climate tech.
Through NAIIF, 3.5 million women availed funding in their bank accounts; 8.9 million residents of rural and semi-urban areas were extended funding, and 1 million borrowers were newly introduced into the financing system, Northern Arc said.
About 5.2 million loans were extended from the NAIIF to finance farm productivity through loans for the purchase of fertilizer/ manure/seeds/tractor or equipment/livestock and poultry, the company added.
“BIO’s investment in the fund brings together catalytic capital and capacity building, and spurs ecosystem development to bridge the financing gap for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and IEs in emerging markets,” said Ravi Vukkadala, chief executive Northern Arc Investments.
“India has many young people who are working hard to improve their lives and start businesses. Strengthening the private sector through impact investing promotes fair work practices, gender equality, and combats poverty and climate change, which are the main obstacles to human progress.
The Northern Arc India Impact Fund (NAIIF) is committed to supporting businesses and entrepreneurs that share this mission, and we are very optimistic about the work they are doing in this area,” said Carole Maman, chief investment officer at BIO.
