The Qatar-based social enterprise Silatech recently launched a three-year partnership with the Japanese microfinance investor Gojo & Company with the aim of supporting 90,000 youth in Cambodia, India and Sri Lanka with digital financial services to facilitate the founding and expansion of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Among the strategies of the partnership is
Search Results for: India
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sahyadri Farms of India Raises $39m in Equity from Incofin, FMO, Korys, Proparco to Boost Smallholder Farmers’ Exports of Fruits, Vegetables
The Belgian impact investor Incofin recently led an investment round in Sahyadri Farms, an Indian firm that works with smallholder farmers to grow and process food for export. The value of the equity round is INR 3.1 billion (USD 39 million), including participation from the Dutch development bank Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO); Korys, the impact investing firm of Belgium’s Colruyt family; and the French government’s Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique (Proparco).
Sahyadri Farms is a “farmer-led” firm that buys nine crops from 18,000 farmers who tend
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FMO Issuing Senior, Secured Loan of $10m in Local Currency to NeoGrowth for Microfinance Lending in India
The Dutch development bank Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO) recently signed a senior, secured facility equivalent to USD 10 million in local currency to India’s NeoGrowth to expand its lending to microenterprises. Founded in 2013, NeoGrowth provides loans to micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) based on
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Making Finance Work for Women Global Summit; May 24-25, 2023; Mumbai, India – NEW DATES AND LOCATION
The goal of this event is to find new ways to assist women in accessing financial services and thus economic empowerment. Although the detailed agenda has yet to be released, the 2020 virtual edition of the summit offered programming on topics such as the effect of world crises on low-income women, digitized wages, inclusive insurance, resilience, leadership and diversity, government-to-person (G2P) payments, gender-lens investing, and regulatory technology (regtech).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: In $112m Deal, ADB, BII, LeapFrog, Premji Invest in Shubham Housing Development Finance of India as Elevar, Motilal Oswal Private Equity Exit
The multilateral Asian Development Bank (ADB), the UK government’s British International Investment (BII), UK-based LeapFrog Investments and India’s Premji Invest (PI) – via its PI Opportunities Fund – recently announced they have led an investment in the India’s Shubham Housing Development Finance in local currency totalling the equivalent of USD 112 million. The four investors disbursed USD 78 million to Shubham as primary capital to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SEWA Affiliate Sitara Raises $20m in Equity from Nordic Microfinance Initiative, Women’s World Banking, Ongoing Shareholders to Improve Housing Conditions for Women in India
SEWA Grih Lin, an Indian affordable housing finance company also known as Sitara, recently raised USD 20 million in equity, including USD 8 million from the Norway-based Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI). Sitara sourced the remainder in unspecified portions from
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fusion Microfinance Borrows $4m from Crédit Agricole CIB for Group Lending to Rural, Women-owned Businesses in India, Guaranteed by GCA Foundation
Fusion Microfinance, an India-based microfinance institution (MFI), recently borrowed local currency approximately equivalent to USD 4.4 million from Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) India, a unit of France-based Crédit Agricole. The loan, which is guaranteed by the Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, is for
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Accion Venture Lab, Endiya Lead $3m in Equity Funding for AquaExchange for Digitization in Fish Farming, Shrimp Industry in India
AquaExchange, a firm digitizing the operations of India’s fish farming and shrimp industry, recently obtained USD 3 million in equity funding in a round led by Accion Venture Lab, a unit of US-based nonprofit Accion, and Endiya Partners, an India-based venture capital fund, with additional participation from unspecified ongoing shareholders in the company. Neither the breakdown of the funding by investor nor
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CreditAccess Grameen Seeking $50m in Debt from IFC for Financial Inclusion of Women in India
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) recently moved to lend as much as USD 50 million in the form of a three-year senior loan to CreditAccess Grameen, a unit of CreditAccess India. The objective of the loan is to boost enterprise lending to women who live in
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “The Growth and Performance of Affordable Housing Finance Lenders in India;” by Nadeem Karmali, Guillermo Rodriguez Ruiz
In studying the growth of affordable housing finance corporations (AHFCs) in India, the authors review the history of the Indian housing market and related government policies. After independence in 1947, the Indian government acted as a direct provider of housing. Since then, the government migrated its role into being a “facilitator of housing.” Starting in the 1990s,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFAD Lends India’s Uttarakhand State $105m for Rural Enterprise Acceleration Project (REAP) to Address Incomes, Climate Resilience, Out-migration
The government of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand and the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently partnered to launch the Rural Enterprise Acceleration Project (REAP) with the objective of reaching 560,000 households by “supporting smallholder farmers, agricultural laborers, and micro and small agribusinesses to start and expand competitive businesses” including by
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Aavishkaar India Fund VI Nets $130m for MSMEs Addressing Climate Change, Agtech, Fintech – Anchored by Public Funding from Domestic, European Sources
Aavishkaar Capital, a subsidiary of India’s Aavishkaar Group, recently completed the first close of its Aavishkaar India Fund VI with commitments totaling INR 10 billion (USD 130 million) to invest mainly in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). In particular, Sushma Kaushik, a partner at Aavishkaar Capital, said that the fund aims to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kinara Capital Raises $50m in Equity from Nuveen, ASN Microkredietfonds to Boost Lending to MSMEs in India
India’s Kinara Capital recently raised INR 3.8 billion (USD 50 million) in equity from the Global Impact Fund of US-based Nuveen, which led the investment round, and ASN Microkredietfonds, which is advised by the Netherlands’ Triple Jump, to boost Kinara’s lending to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in India. According to Kinara Founder and CEO Hardika Shah
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Pahal Raises Equity, Debt from Huruma Fund, Magallanes Impacto, Northern Arc to Expand Microfinance for Women Farmers in India
Spain-based Gawa Capital recently disbursed EUR 6 million (USD 6.5 million) from the Huruma Fund, a public-private partnership also based in Spain, to purchase a minority stake of undisclosed size in Pahal Financial Services, a microfinance institution based in the city of Ahmedabad, India. Among the goals of the investment are
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: New Flexibility for NBFC-MFIs in India Includes Lifting Interest Ceiling on Microfinance Loans
Non-banking financial company-microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs) in India may set their own interest rates freely now that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repealed the ceilings that previously applied to microlending rates. In the interest of client protection, however, lenders may no longer charge a penalty fee in cases of prepayment, and client repayments may not exceed half of household income. Meanwhile,
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Women’s Agent Network – the Missing Link in India’s Financial Inclusion Story: A Supply-Side Perspective,” by Akhand Tiwari et al, Published by MicroSave
Based on a survey of 12 private-sector business correspondent network managers (BCNMs), the authors seek a supply-side perspective on the challenges and opportunities for expanding the reach of female business correspondents (BCs) in India. BCs are agents who contract with banks to offer banking services outside of bank branches. The authors find that women are underrepresented among BCs, but that “according to BCNMs, more female BC agents would improve the quality of the agent network.” One possible reason
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nepal’s Gateway Payments Service, Manam Infotech, National Payments Corporation of India to Boost Digital Transactions in Nepal
Gateway Payments Service, one of 10 licensed payment system operators in Nepal; the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which is owned by the government of India; and Manam Infotech, an Indian financial technology (fintech) firm are partnering to rollout NPCI’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Nepal. Among UPI’s functions is to allow users to control multiple bank accounts from a single mobile app, facilitating payments to merchants as well as among individuals. The rollout in Nepal will allow transactions within the country at first and may be extended to execute cross-border payments in the future. NPCI is participating in the effort through
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Market Opportunities for Women’s Savings: Evidence From India,” Published by Women’s World Banking (WWB)
Approximately 80 percent of people in India over the age of 15 own a bank account, however only 34 percent of adults – and just 30 percent of women – saved money in the year leading up to this study. The authors surveyed 2,000 women in the states of