Sachin Bansal And Poonawallas All Set to Place Their Bet on This Delhi-based SME Lending Platform
Does this funding establish Bansal's affinity towards fintechs, especially NBFCs?
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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Former Flipkart founder and now an angel investor Sachin Bansal along with Cyrus Poonawalla are all set to invest around INR 100 crore in fintech lending platform U Grow according to a report by Economic Times (ET). The fundraising will take place through two separate securitization and bond deals. The funds will be utilized for business expansion
U Gro was founded by Shachindra Nath, currently its executive chairman of UGro and former CEO of Religare in 1993 in New Delhi, "These transactions demonstrate our ability to securitise our book at an early stage of our development and establish that besides conventional term-financing, we have the ability to raise resources from alternative channels as well," he shared with ET. The tech enabled lending platform provides loans to small businesses. The Non Banking Financial Company claims that it has so far raised INR 950 crore of capital from a variety of private equity funds, institutional investors and family offices. Some of the investors include PAG Asia, ADV Partners, Citigroup, Well Fargo, New Quest and Samina Capital.
India's Rise in Account Ownership
India is an underserved country. It was also underbanked at one point in time but over the years, the various schemes of the government to digitize the economy and make it more financially inclusive-universal availability of finance to the people- India has travelled a long road. According to World Bank's Global Findex report, in Indian sub continent the share of adults with an account has more than doubled since 2011, to 80 percent. An important factor driving this increase, according to the report, was a government policy launched in 2014 to boost account ownership among unbanked adults through biometric identification cards.
Sachin Bansal's Fintech Forays
Sachin Bansal has been showing inclination towards fintechs and non-banking financial institutions majorly. Recently, it acquired a majority stake in Bengaluru-based NBFC Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services Pvt. Ltd (CRIDS), in a deal worth INR 739 crore. In July, Bansal invested INR 50 crore in fintech start-up Kissht and also purchased a debt paper issued by Piramal Group for INR 200 crore.
Sachin Bansal's non fintech investments include funds pumped in Indian cab aggregator Ola and Electric Vehicles start-up Ather Energy.
