New Delhi, Aug. 19 -- Weaver Services, a housing finance company backed by private equity firm Gaja Capital and impact investor Lok Capital, said Tuesday it is raising $170 million (Rs 1,482 crore) in a new funding round led by venture capital firm Lightspeed and PremjiInvest.
Gaja Capital also participated in the round, Weaver Services said in a statement.
Weaver founder Satrajit Bhattacharya said separately in a LinkedIn post that this is "possibly one of (the) larger Series B rounds in the space in India".
The fundraise comes at a time when the non-bank lender is in talks to acquire Centrum Group's housing finance unit, Centrum Housing Finance, per a VCCircle report in June.
The company said that the capital will accelerate its asset acquisitions, technology development, and expansion into tier II and III cities, where the affordable housing gap remains acute. The non-bank lender also aims to combine strong market expertise in affordable housing finance with proprietary tech-driven underwriting models that leverage alternative data to assess borrower creditworthiness.
Founded last year by Bhattacharya, who previously oversaw M&As at Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Weaver has brought on board several other former HDFC professionals. Bhattacharya is vice-chairman at the company while former Fedbank Financial Services MD Anil Kothuri joined recently as co-founder, MD and CEO.
"There is a clear opportunity to use technology mindfully to offer home loans to the informal segment, while achieving better customer selection, superior risk management, and enhanced productivity," said Kothuri.
Last year, Weaver agreed to acquire Capital India Home Loans, raising Rs 800 crore ($95 million) from investors such as Gaja Capital and Lok Capital to finance the deal and expand its business. The acquisition cost about Rs 267 crore and received the Reserve Bank of India's approval in May.
Further, Weaver said on Tuesday that it is likely to acquire another asset for initial scale and is evaluating a few entities.
Meanwhile, Lightspeed is a global multi-stage investment firm that invests across venture to late-stage growth, with a focus on accelerating disruptive innovations in artificial intelligence, enterprise, financial services, consumer, health, and business-to-business (B2B) segments.
PremjiInvest, the family office of Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji, invests across private and public markets, spanning financial services, technology, consumer, industrials, and healthcare.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.