Hyderabad: Venture debt financier IntelleGrow, which funds social enterprises, has raised $8 million from Calvert Foundation, a US-based community development financial institution.
The funds will be used by IntelleGrow to lend to high-impact social start-ups.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the development finance institution of the US government, said it will provide an investment guarantee to the Calvert Foundation “to enable it to lend $8 million to IntelleGrow.”
“The guarantee will help provide badly needed early stage debt financing to high-impact small businesses. This in turn is expected to have positive impact on job creation and economic growth as well as poverty alleviation through the provision of basic services to low income populations,” OPIC said in its website.
The non-banking finance company had earlier tied up around ₹ 38 crore in funding from Omidyar Network and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.
Under the India Investment Initiative, Calvert Foundation can raise funds from Indians residing in the US who can buy the Foundation’s community investment notes, which would be used to loan to Indian social enterprises.
In the next two years, the Foundation hopes to raise $10 million from Indians in the US.
IntelleGrow has financed 93 small and growing companies since 2013 in sectors like financial inclusion, healthcare, clean energy, water and sanitation, waste recycling and agri-food processing. Start-ups in these sectors have been facing challenges like non-availability of funds.
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