Aye Finance, a Gurugram-based small business lender has secured $10 million (approx ₹71 crore) in debt from responsAbility Investments AG.
In the, the company has raised $5 million from responsAbility through non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and the balance $5 million has been issued from a securitization pool raised by responsAbility, which was arranged by JPMorgan.
“We plan to use the funds raised for growth, to lend more and build a profitable loan book, and are seeing significant demand despite the liquidity crisis,” said Sanjay Sharma, managing director, Aye Finance.
Aye Finance was founded by Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley in 2014. The company provides financial services to micro and small businesses in Northern India.
The platform, generally, lends ₹1- 2 lakh to businesses with a turnover of ₹10- 30 lakh a year.
“Our growth has not slowed down at all because our borrowers’ funding requirement is less, the payback period is relatively shorter and we have a good track record,” Sharma said.
The company also plans to double disbursements, and expects to have a loan book of about ₹1,700 crore by the end of the year. Whereas, it is currently disbursing about ₹100 crore a month and has a loan book of ₹1,100 crore.
“The coming months are peak season for micro enterprises because of festive demand. We expect a significant uptick, and to lend about ₹200 crore a month by the end of the year,” Sharma further said.
Some of the significant startups in the same space includes Indifi Technologies, Kissht, Vistaar, Intech, i-Lend, Lendbox, and many more.