ISFC plans to raise $10-12 million through debt and equity

Education sector lender Indian School Finance Company (ISFC) is planning to raise $10-12 million in its eighth round of funding through a mix of both equity and debt, and has initiated talks with a clutch of family offices and high networth individuals (HNIs).

“We are taking this investment round as an opportunity to convert ourselves into a full-service, digitally-driven business. ISFC is in a unique position with a strong brand value, large customer base, and well-diversified pan-India distribution and collection network. We simply need to execute our digital transformation and work on linking the whole ecosystem that would give us exponential scale with very little, known, and mitigable risk on our turf,” Sandeep Wirkhare, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at ISFC said.

“With it, we intend to organise and bring underserved K12 schools from the traditional education system to a futuristic digital content delivery model in the education and skill development space,” he added.

During the lockdown period of last year, the company raised $10 million from US-based impact investor Gray Matters Capital Inc (GMC) through both equity and debt.

“ISFC is one of our longest-standing flagship investments in education. ISFC has continuously demonstrated its ability to scale up operations and successfully serve customers across India year upon year. This model is now being replicated in other countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan as well,” Erika Norwood CEO of GMC Inc said.

ISFC’s main focus during the upcoming fiscal year is to proactively drive digital transformation and integration of technology. The current round of equity will also enhance its capital adequacy, thereby diversifying the shareholder base and paving the way for incremental leverage on debt capital, it added.

ISFC has a robust network of 22 branches across 13 states and funded more than 5,500 schools so far.