New Delhi, May 28 -- Non-bank lender Saarathi Finance & Credit Pvt Ltd said Wednesday it has raised Rs 475 crore ($55.6 million) in a Series A round from private equity firm TVS Capital and other investors.
Lok Capital, Evolvence Equity Partners, Paragon Partners, and some angel investors also joined the round, the non-banking finance company said in a statement. These investors collectively put Rs 350 crore out of the total amount.
Saarathi founder and CEO Vivek Bansal and co-founder Sunil Daga invested the remaining amount.
The announcement comes two-and-a-half months after VCCircle reported that TVS Capital had invested in the lender, citing the PE firm's chairman and managing director Gopal Srinivasan. The company was targeting an initial expected capital of Rs 500 crore, VCCircle reported at the time.
The round values the NBFC at Rs 900 crore ($105 million), according to the statement.
Bansal, who is also the CEO of Saarathi, was formerly the CFO of financial services provider InCred Group while Daga was president at Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The NBFC seeks to provide low ticket-size secured and unsecured loans to MSMEs and individuals. It said that it plans to use the proceeds to provide loans particularly in underserved semi-urban and rural regions across Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Saarathi says it seeks to combine technology-driven solutions with tailor-made offerings for consumers, offering both secured and unsecured loans in order to make credit more accessible to entrepreneurs for whom securing funding from traditional sources and formal financial institutions remains a challenge.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.