New Delhi, June 13 -- Prashant Jain, former chief investment officer of HDFC Mutual Fund, and well-known stock market investor Madhusudan Kela have bet on a financial services company through their respective firms.
Jain's 3P Investment Managers has invested Rs 150 crore in Capri Global Capital Ltd via its Category-III alternative investment fund while Kela's non-banking finance firm MKVentures Capital Ltd invested an undisclosed amount.
Prior to starting 3P Investment Managers, Jain served as the chief investment officer of HDFC Asset Management Company. Kela served as the chief investment strategist at Reliance Capital for nearly seven years before going solo.
These investments are part of the Rs 2,000 crore that Capri Global raised via a qualified institutional placement. This is the company's first QIP issue in the last decade.
Capri Global said in a statement that it issued around 136.5 million shares to institutional investors at Rs 146.5 each. Quant Mutual Fund alone invested about Rs 540 crore through its small-cap and large-cap funds.
Others who invested included an alternative investment fund of Tata Capital, BlackRock, Think Investments, Allspring Global Investments, Societe Generale, and five local insurers - ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, SBI General Insurance, and HDFC Ergo General Insurance.
"The capital raised will enable us to capitalise on growth opportunities across key lending verticals, expand our geographical presence, invest in AI & data science capabilities and strengthen our capital base," Rajesh Sharma, managing director, Capri Global Capital said.
Sharma added that the funding will also open up new avenues for the company to diversify its borrowings and solidify its liability franchise.
Capri Global started lending operations in 2011. It offers various products like MSME loans, housing loans, construction finance, and loans to other NBFCs, and gold loans. The company caters to over 5 lakh customers through 1,111 branches.
The company's net profit rose to nearly Rs 479 crore in the financial year ended March 2025 from Rs 279 crore the year before. Its assets under management rose 46% year-on-year to nearly Rs 22,860 crore as on March 31.
In May 2023, the non-bank lender's holding company, Capri Global Holdings, acquired a 51% stake in new-car selling platform CarLelo for Rs 150 crore in a bid to expand lending operations.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.