Aye Finance Bags $8 Mn From Blue Orchard

Gurugram-based NBFC Aye Finance has raised $8 Mn from Blue Orchard, a leading global impact investment manager.

The funding was raised through NCDs (non-convertible debentures) with a maturity period of five years.

Founded in 2014 by Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley, Aye Finance provides customer-centred financial services to micro and small businesses. It currently has a network of 39 branches with a team of about 450 employees.

Aye Finance claims to have impacted over 100,000 families through its business enterprise loans.

Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director, Aye Finance said “By deploying a cloud-computing architecture and data science methods to derive insights about each of our industry clusters, we are able to bring down the cost of delivery and offer credit solutions at affordable rates to the micro and small enterprises. It is part of Aye Finance’s vision to leverage technology prowess of today for improving the productivity of field force, detecting frauds, profiling risks and exercising dual control on processes.”

The funds will be utilised to strengthen its funding position and to facilitate the inclusion of a larger number of MSMEs in the realm of mainstream economy.

On the other hand, Switzerland-headquartered Blue Orchard was founded in 2001 by initiative of the UN as the first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments worldwide. It offers premium investment solutions to qualified investors and provides debt and equity financing to institutions in emerging and frontier markets.

In March 2017, Aye Finance received a credit facility of $ 3.1 Mn from SBI. In November 2016, it received equity funding worth $10 Mn in a Series B round led by LGT IV,  SAIF Partners and Accion. Prior to that in December 2015, the company had raised Series A round of $3 Mn.

Other startups include Chennai-based fintech startup, Veritas Finance, Lendingkart, and KredX.