Gurugram-based Ummeed Housing Finance said it has raised Rs 270 crore ($37 million) in its Series E funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners and joined by existing investor Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia.
“Given the participation from larger growth equity investors, the company will look to aggressively double assets under management (AUM) to Rs 1,300 crore over the next 18 months,” said Ashutosh Sharma, founder and managing director of Ummeed.
“This round of fundraising gives us clear visibility on the equity front as we are looking to expand our operations, strengthen our technology platform, and enter new geographies,” he added
Ummeed was founded in January 2016 by Sharma who had spent 25 years at Citibank, HSBC, and Bank of Montreal. The company provides loans to families with low and informal income.
It offers loans ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 25 lakh to buy and build apartments and houses. It also makes loans against property.
Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and the National Capital Region are its key markets. The company aims to disburse over Rs 1,000 crore in loans to over 12,000 customers.
Investment bank Unitus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Ummeed on the transaction.
The investment comes after CX Partners acquired a minority stake in Ummeed in December last year by acquiring shares from early-stage investors Lok Capital and Duane Park.
In February 2020, Ummeed raised Rs 164 crore ($23 million) in its Series D funding round from Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada.
In 2018, Ummeed raised Rs 60 crore ($8.3 million) from Zurich-headquartered LGT Impact and Rs 5 crore ($690,000) from existing social-impact investor Lok Capital in a Series C round.
Earlier, it had raised Rs 36 crore in a Series B round from existing investors Lok Capital and Duane Park in May 2017.
Current round investors
In May 2021, Norwest Venture Partners, TPG Growth, and Evolvence invested Rs 337 crore (about $45 million) in the Series E funding round of non-banking finance company Ess Kay Fincorp Ltd.
In India, Morgan Stanley usually focuses on minority investments in sectors such as consumer products, industrial products, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and technology.
Ummeed is the second Indian company in which Morgan Stanley PE Asia had invested in February. Morgan Stanley PE Asia had invested Rs 190 crore in Centrum Housing Finance Ltd, a unit of Centrum Group, that month.