Aye Finance, a fintech lender backed by Capital G (formerly known as Google Capital), has raised ₹107 crore as debt funding from BlueOrchard, a Swiss-based impact investor.

BlueOrchard has been supporting Aye in its mission to enable the financial inclusion of micro enterprises since May 2017, and has taken a total exposure of ₹290 crores in the MSME lender. Aye will utilise this latest round of funds to extend affordable and customised credit solutions to businesses of India.

While the NBFC sector has been struggling to raise adequate funds for on-lending, Aye has remained unaffected and continues to draw interest from global and Indian investors. Last month, the fintech lender had raised ₹125 core from the Dutch Development Bank FMO. In the current year, Aye has raised over ₹1,140 crore in debt and equity from leading names including CapitalG, Falcon Edge, HDFC, ICICI, DCB Bank, other than FMO and BlueOrchard.

Since its inception in 2014, Aye has provided ₹2,700 crore worth of credit to over 1,96,000 grassroot businesses. It has an active customer base of over 1,30,000, and an Assets Under Management (AUM) of ₹1,500 crore. This year the lender expanded its reach to micro enterprises in 173 cities in 18 States.

BlueOrchard is a global impact investment manager, dedicated to fostering inclusive and climate-smart growth. With a major global presence and offices on four continents, it has invested to date more than $5 billion across 80 emerging and frontier markets, enabling tangible social and environmental impact.

Sanjay Sharma, MD and Founder of Aye Finance, said, “This is the sixth round of funds we have received from BlueOrchard, and I believe this demonstrates their comfort with and commitment to our business. Lending to micro enterprises has been a less travelled path for banks and financial companies, and hence it is satisfying to have established an innovative paradigm of our lending approach.”

Normunds Mizis, Chief Credit Officer at BlueOrchard, said, “India is an important market for BlueOrchard, and one that we have been actively investing in for almost 20 years. We have been working with Aye Finance since 2017. This additional funding is testament to our conviction in the company’s mission to bridge the gap between loans offered by MFIs and those available from commercial banks, offering MSMEs across India access to attractive credit solutions.”

Published on December 26, 2019