Inc42 Daily Brief
Stay Ahead With Daily News & Analysis on India’s Tech & Startup Economy
Tata Trust’s Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani have joined hands to launch a microfinance company, Avanti Finance.
According to ET, the online platform for loan disbursement has been termed as ‘a technology-enabled financial inclusion vehicle’.
The portal aims to bring a change in the lives of the financially under-served segment of the country. It will leverage on the social sector presence of Tata Trust and the rapidly evolving India Stack (Jan Dhan – Aadhar – Mobile), UPI, and payments bank ecosystem.
“Avanti will be a platform to impact the poor through credit at individual and community levels to create a lasting improvement in their livelihoods and standard of living, ushering prosperity. I am thankful to Dr. Kelkar and Nandan for agreeing to be part of this purpose-driven initiative,” said Tata in a press statement.
Tata and Nilekani will bring investments from their respective philanthropic capital, and any gains will be reinvested in philanthropic causes. Also, Avanti will apply to the Reserve Bank of India for registration and is expected to start operations before the end of the financial year.
Recently, Ratan Tata’s VC fund RNT capital revealed its plans to deploy $300 Mn across startups in India, Southeast Asia, and the US. The fund is expected to invest $10-15 Mn funds in tech businesses. Also, this year he made significant investments in startups such as e-ticketing portal KyaZoonga, online premium tea seller Teabox, wearable gaming platform MadRat, AI platform Niki.ai, and more.
The development was first reported by ET.
Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.