Aye Finance raises Rs25 crore from Hinduja Finance and IntelleGrow

Bengaluru: Aye Finance, a Gurugram-based small business loan provider, on Monday said it has raised Rs25 crore through a securitization deal from investors including Hinduja Leyland Finance and Intellegrow. The deal was facilitated by Vivriti Capital.

This is the second such deal for Aye Finance. Last July, the company had raised Rs10 crore by securitizing a part of its portfolio. The current funding round will be used to build the company’s loan book.

Founded in 2014 by Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley, Aye Finance is a non-banking finance company (NBFC) that provides mortgage, hypothecation and term loan services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It has 72 branches currently in 10 states across India.

Till date, the company has disbursed more than Rs500 crore to 40,000 small and medium businesses. It also claims to have around Rs350 crore in assets under management (AUM).

The company had earlier raised equity funds from three venture capital funds including Accion International, SAIF Partners and LGT Impact Ventures. Till date it has raised Rs101 crore from venture capital firms, and another Rs500 crore from debt and equity funds. Aye Finance said that it is in advanced talks with investors to raise an additional Rs150 crore in Series C funding.

According to Sanjay Sharma, managing director, Aye Finance, many small businesses require loans of Rs50,000-500,000 but servicing such loans is expensive. “We at Aye have not only designed our processes and automation at minimum cost, but we have also partnered with various lenders, which allows us to offer economical loans, bringing this crucial sector of the economy under the inclusive fold of formal lending,” Sharma said in a statement.