Gurugram-based financial services startup Aye Finance has secured US$ 27M in Series E funding on 25 June. Total funding stands at US$ 244.4M.
The investors include LGT Capital Partners, Falcon Edge India, A91 Emerging Fund I, CapitalG International and Maj Invest Financial Inclusion Fund II. Ownership of LGT Capital is 17.49% shareholdings, followed by Falcon Edge with 12.87%. The company had raised US$ 23M in debt back in April 2020.
Aye Finance is set to use the funds to add to its liquidity base. It wants to bolster its operations to offset the impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to a slowdown of the economy.
Aye Finance is a financial services company. It provides business loans to micro and small businesses mainly in Northern India. Their mission is to provide innovative and customer-oriented financial services to micro and small business through effective technology and processes. They believe that “The untapped market for funding micro enterprises is an opportunity to be unlocked”. The company has also set up a Not-for-profit organisation- FAME (Foundation for Advancement of Micro Enterprises), its CSR entity.
The startup was co-founded in 2014, by Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley. Sanjay Sharma is the Managing Director. Vikram Jetley is the Executive Director. Aye Finance serves various industries like-
Manufacturing: Cloth, Bags, Ladies/ Gents Shoes, Brass Statue, Building Hardware, Leather Products, Handicraft etc.
Trading: Garments, Stationery, Petty Shop, General Store, Utensils, Furniture, Marbles, Auto Parts, Agricultural Produce.
Services: Restaurants, Sweet Shops, Tailor, Boutique, Dry Cleaners, Hair Saloon, Beauty Parlour.
The company deploys advanced statistical models and predictive analytics for credit risk selection that works even in the absence of formal business documents and prior credit histories.
“Difficult times are a true test of a good lender and we have already started showing significant improvements in the customer repayments in the past months,” said MD Sanjay Sharma.
