Svasti Microfinance Pvt. Ltd said on Monday it has secured $10 million (Rs 71.5 crore) from a number of investors to grow its business and provide an exit opportunity to two early backers.
The lender said in a statement it received the funding from Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla, Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) and Rajiv Dadlani Group. All three are existing investors.
A couple of Dubai- and Singapore-based family offices and investment firm also took part in this round.
The latest investment takes the total funding raised by Svasti thus far to $17 million, the statement said.
The Mumbai-based company will use the funds to expand its branch network, increase its portfolio of loans to micro, small and medium enterprises and provide other financial services, such as consumer finance and insurance. It will also use the money to provide full exits to its early investors Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) and Bamboo Financial Inclusion Fund.
The company didn’t give a break-up of the amount it will use for expansion and for providing an exit to the two investors.
As of March 2019, Bamboo Financial held a 19.50% stake in Svasti while MSDF owned 14.66%, according to the lender’s annual report.
Narayanan Subramaniam, co-founder at Svasti, said the latest fundraise gives the firm adequate capital to meet growth plans until March 2021.
Svasti was co-founded by Subramaniam and Arunkumar Padmanabhan in 2010. The company services around 185,000 customers across 52 branches in four states. It has a loan book of around Rs 380 crore.
In 2015, Svasti had raised funds from Adar Poonawalla, who also invested in follow-on rounds in 2017 and 2018. Norway’s NMI had first invested in the company last year.
Many of Svasti's investors have made several impact investments in the financial inclusion segment. Besides Svasti, Bamboo’s other investment in India include Annapurna Finance and Asmitha Microfin. MSDF has backed Arohan Financial, Sonata Finance and Thirumeni Finance, among others.
