The company’s early investors include The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, impact investor OikoCredit and Japanese financial services major Nomura.
In April last year, Avanti Finance had raised $24 million and with this round the overall funding in the venture stands at $80 million.
Rahul Gupta, chief executive officer Avanti Finance said that this growth capital will be used to increase the loan book. The company will invest in its technology capabilities to improve the borrowing experience of its customers and augment its channels in both rural and urban consumer segments, he added.
Launched in 2018, Avanti Finance offers small-ticket income generation loans for working capital to micro enterprises and also caters to the urban gig worker segment. The company has developed a network of smaller financial institutions, agritech players and fintech partners that collectively originate its customers at over 700 branches spread across 27 states in the country.
It runs co-lending programmes for the microfinance segment.
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Avanti has catered to 900,000 low income households and has built an asset under management of Rs 1,640 crore. It has forecast building an AUM of Rs 2,100 crore at the end of this fiscal year, targeting a 50% year on year growth.Given the stress being seen in the microfinance sector, Avanti has faced an increase in the gross bad loans for November which went up to 2.7% from around 1.2% in March this year.
“We remain hopeful that there will be steady improvements across the industry and that normalcy will return within the next quarter or two,” Gupta told ET.
