Accion Venture Lab, the “seed stage investment arm” of US-based NGO Accion, recently sold part of its stake in Aye Finance, an Indian non-banking financial company – microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI). Meanwhile, Maj Invest Group, a Danish asset management company, bought a stake in Aye Finance through its Financial Inclusion Fund II. Accion Venture Lab and SAIF Partners, a venture capital firm with offices in India and China, bought stakes in Aye Finance in 2015 for a total of USD 1 million. Additional information on the sizes and prices of the stakes remain confidential. Accion remains invested in Aye Finance through another of its entities, Accion Global Investments.
Headquartered in the city of Gurgaon, Aye Finance was founded in 2014. The company offers loans for purposes including fixed capital needs, such as machinery purchases and building renovations, as well as working capital needs, such as purchasing raw materials. In addition to SAIF Partners and Accion Global Investments, Aye Finance’s investors include LGT Impact, a private equity impact investor formerly known as the Liechtenstein Global Trust; and CapitalG, a US growth equity fund formerly known as Google Capital. As of 2018, Aye Finance has received USD 79 million in funding over 12 rounds. The firm reports total assets of INR 5.1 billion (USD 72 million), a gross loan portfolio of INR 4.25 billion (USD 60 million) and currently serves 70,000 micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The company does not accept deposits.
Accion Venture Lab, which was created in 2011, invests “in technology and business model innovation as well as new approaches that help underserved people and small businesses benefit from the world’s formal economy.” The majority of Accion Venture Lab’s investees are seed-stage firms in the microfinance and fintech sectors. Its typical investment is an equity placement of USD 300,000 to USD 500,000. As of May 2018, its portfolio consists of 32 enterprises.
The mission of Accion is to alleviate poverty by offering services such as microenterprise loans and business training. Founded in 1961, Accion has partner microfinance institutions (MFIs) providing loans to entrepreneurs through 64 MFIs in 32 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. As of 2017 reports USD 375 billion, customer deposits of USD 602 million and a gross loan portfolio of USD 610 million.
Maj Invest is an asset management and private equity firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark, primarily serving institutional investors and funds investing in unlisted equities. Maj Invest provides investment advisory services to eight private equity funds, two of which are focused on microfinance in Africa, Asia and Latin America: Maj Invest Financial Inclusion Fund II and Danish Microfinance Partners. As of 2017, Maj Invest reported DDK 65 billion (USD 9.9 billion) in assets under management. Maj Invest Financial Inclusion Fund II had total commitments of DDK 137 million (USD 21 million).
By Michelle Fleming, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Accion press release on sale of equity in Aye
https://www.accion.org/accion-venture-lab-successfully-completes-exit-from-indian-fintech-company-aye-finance
Accion press release on 2015 investment in Aye
https://www.accion.org/accion-and-saif-partners-co-invest-in-india-based-aye-finance/
Aye Finance homepage
http://www.ayefin.com
Aye Finance financial information
http://ayefin.com/financial-statement/Annual-report-FY17-18.pdf
Crunchbase profile on Aye Finance
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/aye-finance#section-funding-rounds
Maj Invest homepage
https://majinvest.com
SAIF Partners homepage
https://www.saifpartners.com
Accion homepage
https://www.accion.org
Accion financial information
https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2017-Audited-Financial-Statements.pdf
Accion Venture Lab background
https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab/
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: 4Di Capital, Accion Venture Labs, Lireas Holdings Invest Equity in Insurance Technology (Insurtech) Firm Lumkani of South Africa
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-4di-capital-accion-venture-labs-lireas-holdings-invest-equity-in-insurance-technology-insurtech-firm-lumkani-of-south-africa/
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Maj Invest Raising Additional $25m for Financial Inclusion Fund II for Microfinance in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-maj-invest-raising-additional-25m-for-financial-inclusion-fund-ii-for-microfinance-in-bolivia-colombia-ecuador-peru/
Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
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