Aye Finance, a North India-based small business lender, received INR 20 crore in follow-on investments.
Backers included Accion and SAIF Partners.
The company intends to use the funds to scale up the lending business, strengthen its existing operating base by refining its underwriting processes and risk analysis, improving data analytics, assisting with product development, and encouraging broader industry engagement.
Led by Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director, Aye Finance leverages technology, credit assessments, and a new ‘Industry Cluster Enablement’ (ICE) model of lending to allow India’s micro and small businesses meet working capital and capex requirements as they look to grow their businesses.
The ‘industry cluster’ approach allows the company to develop thorough expertise in particular micro-industries and understand what a prospective borrower’s financials should be, assess their creditworthiness, and evaluate their reputation, helping the lender originate loans between Rs 0.5 lakh and up to Rs 25 lakhs faster, and with less risk.
Aye Finance, which has already raised debt funds from a diversified group of top tier funding organizations like IFMR, Intellegrow, MAS Financial Services, and a number of banks, has already expanded to 16 cities across northern India and plans to continue expanding in the coming year.
FinSMEs
10/12/2015