Altum Credo, a housing lender serving low- and moderate-income Indians, recently raised a total of INR 640 million (USD 9.8 million) from investors including Aavishkaar Venture Management Services, an India-based investor seeking to “enhance livelihoods and reduce vulnerabilities for the low-income population,” and PS Pai, who is known for his tenure at the Murugappa Group, an Indian conglomerate. The amounts they invested and the names of the other investors – identified
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MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Branch International Raises $70m in Debt, Equity from Trinity, Victory Park, IFC, Andreessen Horowitz, CreditEase to Expand Digital Financial Services in Africa, India
Branch International, a for-profit lender to 1 million mobile-phone subscribers in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, recently raised USD 70 million with the goal of expanding within Africa, entering the Indian market, and launching savings and transfer services. US-based Trinity Ventures led the fundraising round, and its general partner, Schwark Satyavolu, will take a position on the board of directors of Branch. While the amounts invested by each entity have not been released, the other investors are US-based Victory Park Capital, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, US-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and China-based CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund. Branch’s other shareholders are listed at https://www.branch.co/about.
Branch evaluates the creditworthiness of applicants by harvesting data from their phones: GPS data, contact lists, type of phone, data from social networks, and
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Financial Inclusion in a Digital Economy; November 23 – 24, 2018; Amritsar, India
Summary of Event: The goal of this seminar is to promote “new approaches to address the various problems in the field of financial inclusion” to boost the incomes of “all sections of the society in general and vulnerable groups in particular.” Topics will include treating clients
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 3rd BoP Global Network Summit; April 18 – 20, 2018; New Delhi, India
Summary of Event: Themed “New Strategies for Building BoP Ecosystems,” this event includes sessions on serving people at the base of the pyramid (BoP), such as: (1) How Can We Leverage Digital Financial Inclusion to Disruptively Enhance the Livelihoods and Life Quality of BoP Communities?; and (2) Leveraging Innovations in Tech and Finance to Scale-up Models that Can Solve the Most Pressing Health
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fusion Microfinance of India Raises $12m in Equity from Creation Investments, Oikocredit, Gawa Capital
Fusion Microfinance, a lender to groups of women in India, recently raised INR 800 million (USD 12.4 million) in unspecified portions from US-based Creation Investments, Netherlands-based Oikocredit and Spain-based Gawa Capital Partners. All three of the investors were already shareholders in the microlender. Fusion plans to use the cash to invest in
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Odisha State Encouraging Banks, Microfinance Institutions to Open 656 “Banking Outlets” in Unserved Rural Areas
By March 2019, the eastern Indian state of Odisha is encouraging financial institutions to open “banking outlets” in 656 gram panchayats (villages) that are at least
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: responsAbility Agriculture I Fund Takes Equity Stake in Indian Value-chain Lender Samunnati
Switzerland-based responsAbility Investments recently disbursed the first investment from its private equity fund responsAbility Agriculture I, acquiring a “significant” minority stake in Samunnati, a non-banking financial company in India that provides loans and advisory services to players in agricultural value chains. Although the price and size of the stake remain confidential, responsAbility Agriculture I generally places investments of
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 2018 Customer Centricity Learning Event; February 19 – 22, 2018; Mamallapuram, India
Event Name: 2018 Customer Centricity Learning Event
Event Date: February 19 – 22, 2018
Application deadline: January 19, 2018
Event Location: Mamallapuram, India
Summary of Event: This event is intended to improve the ways financial services providers work with low-income customers. The conference includes training exercises and networking events designed to improve social
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Aavishkaar Bharat Fund Attracts $95m for Impact Investing from Investors Including CDC, SIDBI, Munjal Family Office (Hero Corporation), TIAA
Indian fund advisor Aavishkaar recently completed the first close of the Aavishkaar Bharat Fund, with commitments of INR 6.2 billion (USD 95 million), of which it has INR 5.9 billion (USD 92 million) in hand. The fund will support businesses in India that further Aavishkaar’s mission to “enhance livelihoods and reduce vulnerabilities for the low-income population” in “a range of sectors, namely agriculture, dairy, education, energy, handicrafts, health, water and sanitation, technology for development, microfinance and financial inclusion.” Aavishkaar will seek to do this while generating a
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Digital Wallets for Illiterate Customers in India, Agency Banking in Africa, Gender Equality in Financial Services
“Digital Wallet Adoption for the Oral Segment in India: Concept Development for MoWo (Mobile Wallet for Oral);” by Brett Hudson Matthews, Richa Valechha, Vivek Anand, Avantika Kushwaha, Saborni Poddar and Rachit Ohri; published by MicroSave; May 2017; 50 pages, available at:
http://www.microsave.net/files/pdf/DWA_Research_Concept_Development_for_MoWO.pdf
The authors describe a project conducted during 2016 in India on the Mobile Wallet for Oral (MoWo), a mobile-money service designed for the “oral” market segment, which includes 264 million people in the country who have low reading-skill levels. A group of 310 participants from various communities were subjected to “signing, reading and numeracy” tests. Thereafter, 138 people of varying literacy levels participated in focus groups on the user interface of the mobile wallet. Finally, 29 participants performed usability testing.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Mobikwik Unveil Mobile Wallet
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a telecommunications company owned by the government of India, and Indian “mobile wallet platform provider” Mobikwik recently announced a
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Offshore Financial Centers for Impact Investing; Financial Inclusion in 2025; Microfinance in India
“Offshore Financial Centers for Financial Inclusion: A Marriage of Convenience;” by Sam Mendelson and Daniel Rozas; published by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion; June 2017; 14 pages; available at:
http://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/publications-a-resources/browse-publications/865-offshore-financial-centers-for-financial-inclusion
This paper explores the use of offshore financial centers (OFCs) based on interviews with 13 equity impact investors.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Reserve Bank of India Releases “Compendium of Guidelines on Financial Inclusion and Development” in Support of Small Finance Banks’ Launch
The Reserve Bank of India, India’s central banking authority, recently released its “Compendium of Guidelines on Financial Inclusion and Development” for small finance banks, a new classification of institutions intended to increase the “supply of credit to micro- and small enterprises (MSEs), [as well as] agriculture and banking services in unbanked and under-banked regions in the country.”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Microlender Arohan Sells 13% Equity Stake to Maj Invest for $15m; Aavishkaar, Tano Increase Holdings
Arohan Financial Services, an Indian non-banking finance company that offers microloans to women, recently raised INR 155 crore (USD 24.1 million) from Maj Invest, a Danish asset management firm; Tano Capital, a US-based asset management firm focusing on emerging markets; Aavishkaar Venture Management Services, a venture capital firm targeting underserved regions of India; and multiple individuals.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SoftBank Pays $1.4b for 20% Equity Stake in Paytm, Provider of Digital Payment Services in India
Paytm, an Indian electronic payment and e-commerce company with 220 million users, recently raised INR 90 billion (USD 1.4 billion) in equity by selling nearly 20 percent of its shares to SoftBank Group, a Japanese conglomerate operating in the technology and energy sectors.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 9th Sankalp Global Summit; December 7 – 8, 2017; Mumbai, India
Event Name: Ninth Sankalp Global Summit 2017
Event Date: December 7 – December 8, 2017
Event Location: JW Marriott Hotel; Mumbai, India
Summary of Event: The foci of this summit are social enterprise, impact investing and “inclusive development” worldwide. The event will also explore the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s agenda has not been released, but previous iterations of the conference included sessions on topics such as financing small and medium-sized enterprises and opportunities in agriculture.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Disha Microfin Receives License to Operate Fincare Small Finance Bank
Disha Microfin, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI), recently received a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open a “small finance bank” that it is launching under the name Fincare.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microloan Delinquencies Rise from 0.5% to 11% Following Demonetization in India
India Ratings, a subsidiary of US-based Fitch Group, recently announced that its “0+ days delinquency index” increased from 0.45 percent to 10.82 percent in the four months following November 2016 and thus concluded that the Indian government’s demonetization had a significant negative effect on microlenders [1].