Fintech Firm Aye Finance Raises Rs 180 crore

Fintech lender Aye Finance on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 180 crore from various lenders in the past fortnight.

The company said the money will be used to give credit to these needy businesses during this tough time.

Aye has managed to raise these funds at a time when globally, economic activities have come to a standstill due to the pandemic outbreak.

As India is undergoing the 21-day lockdown period, routine commerce and financial activities across businesses in India, including micro, small and medium enterprises, have been disrupted, it said.

"Aye has offered a moratorium to its customers, which are the bottom of the pyramid businesses, as per the RBI notification... to support them during this difficult period, " it added.

Aye Finance Managing Director Sanjay Sharma said, "This fresh round of funds we have raised will be used to address the credit requirements of the micro enterprises to support them during this financial crisis."

Aye said CapitalG, SAIF Partners, LGT, Falcon Edge, A91 Partners and MAJ Invest are its equity investors, and HDFC Bank, SBI, Nabkisan, DCB Bank, FMO, Blue Orchard, Triodos and many other banks, non-banking financial companies and impact investors have given debt lines for on-lending. PTI KPM

Meet the Winners of Facebook's First Ever India Startup Day

On Tuesday, social networking giant Facebook hosted first ever India Startup Day, wherein the company also hosted India Startup Awards to recognize some of the most path-breaking work of India's disruptive startup ecosystem and awarded winners in five categories -- 1) She Leads Tech, 2) Building for the World, 3) Building for Tomorrow, 4) Building for the Next Billion, and 5) Community Builder.

The winners of these five categories are -

She Leads Tech

The 'She Leads Tech' category of awards was given recognize the most successful tech startup launched and or led by a woman founder or co-founder.

[caption id="attachment_126655" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Neha Juneja, Co-Founder and CEO, Greenway Grameen
[Image - Youtu.be/pvzCNcSk40o][/caption]

Winner: Greenway Grameen - A Mumbai-based green technology startup that designs and distributes life-improving products amongst low-income markets. The startup is an incubatee company of IIM Ahmadabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). In 2015, the startup had set up India's largest manufacturing unit for biomass cook stoves in Vadodara, Gujarat.

Founded in 2011 by Neha Juneja along with Ankit Mathur, Greenway has sold about 8 lakh units of its biomass stoves made of steel and aluminum that emit 70 percent less smoke and consume about 50 percent less fuel than conventional mud variants across India and South America. The company clocked ₹25 crore in revenue in FY17. It even started selling solar-powered products such as lamps and a dish antenna service in 2017.

Building for the World

The 'Building for the World' was given to recognize a company that has seen success outside India and are working on solutions that are being used on a global scale.

[caption id="attachment_126658" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Nasofilters [Image- asia.nikkei.com][/caption]

Winner: Nanoclean - An IIT-Delhi alumni startup that produces affordable bio safe nanofibers with its proprietary polymer technology. IN May last year, we reported about Nanocleans first ever product called NasoFilter, which is a nasal filter that can restrict the entry of harmful particles into the body at a mere cost of just Rs. 10 rupees each.

The startup has been awarded Start-ups National Award 2017 by the Technology Development Board for creating a promising new technology with potential for commercialization.

Building for Tomorrow

Winer: Scapic - A platform that lets people create, share and explore immersive experiences and helps users to build Virtual, Augmented or Mixed Reality content easily.

Building for Tomorrow award was given recognize a startup using emerging technologies such as AR/VR to reinvent how business and society can come up with solutions.

Building for the Next Billion

The award for 'Building for the Next Billion' is to recognize startups developing and implementing solutions for social, cultural and environmental issues in India.

[caption id="attachment_126659" align="aligncenter" width="700"] The team at AYE [Image - YourStory.com][/caption]

Winner: Aye Finance - A Gurgaon headquartered startup, Aye Finance has a mission of transforming micro and small enterprise lending in India by providing inclusive finance at affordable price to this 'missing middle'. Interestingly, CapitalG, the venture capital fund owned by Google'a parent Alphabet Inc., had invested in Aye Finance in June this year.

Founded in 2016 by Sanjay and Vikram Jetley, Aye Finance is an NBFC that provides mortgage, hypothecation, and term loan services to the small and micro enterprises. Last month, Aye Finance has been shortlisted in 10 companies selected globally by Google for its flagship development acceleration programme "Launchpad Studio"

Community Builder

The Community Builder award is to recognize startups that are building solutions to support the developer startup community in India

[caption id="attachment_126661" align="aligncenter" width="673"] Team Hasua [Image - Hasura@Facebook][/caption]

Winner: Hasura - A platform that helps developers build, develop and scale their apps. It has instant APIs for rapid development, and it helps create a to-do app within three minutes.

Founded in by Tanmai Gopal, Anand Raj and Rajoshi Ghosh, Hasura had raised $1.6 million seed funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, in April this year.


[Top Featured Image - Team of Nasofilters | Credit - Nasofilters.com]

Aye Finance and m.Paani from India Selected by Google for Its "Launchpad Studio" Acceleration Programme

Two Indian startups - m.Paani and Aye Finance have been listed in 10 companies selected globally by Google for its flagship development acceleration programme "Launchpad Studio". With this, both these Indian Startups become two of the only 10 companies chosen globally by Google.

Unveiled last year, "Launchpad Studio" programme from Google brings top machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based startups from across the world and experts from Silicon Valley under the guidance of Google researchers, engineers, product managers and trusted experts.

Gurgaon headquartered Aye Finance is a non-banking finance company (NBFC) and interestingly, CapitalG, the venture capital fund owned by Google'a parent Alphabet Inc., has already invested in Aye Finance in June this year when the VC fund had led the $21.5 million Series C round of Aye. In 2016, the fintech startup had also raised $10.5 million investment from investors including SAIF Partners and LGT.

The startup is infact a well-funded startup having raised total of about $78.4 million (~ Rs.563 crore) in 11 different rounds, since 2014.

Essentially, Aye Finance provides business loans to the small and micro enterprises and builds solutions, automation and processes that address the challenges that have hindered the classical financial industry.

About m.Paani, the Mumbai headquartered startup is India's first neighbourhood loyalty platform that focuses on empowering India's local retailers and users using ML and AI.

Founded in 2013, by Akanksha Hazari, m.Paani is backed by Blume Ventures, IDG Ventures and some angel investors including Adil Allana of The Allana Group a leading FMCG group (includes brand London Dairy, among many others) in India and the Middle East, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Founder of Taxiforsure, and Gautam Ivatury, CoFounder of Meradoctor and Signal Point Partners.

The startup was also the part of Google's four shortlisted Indian startups for its hands-on mentorship programme 'Launchpad Accelerator', in December last year.

The start-up rewards consumers with "m.Paani points" when they shop from local retail partners across categories and help retailers grow their businesses by digitising, optimising and maximising their relationships with existing and new customers, it said in a statement on Thursday.

"We are incredibly excited to be a part of the Google Studio programme, especially as the youngest company," said Akanksha Hazari Ericson, CEO and Founder, m.Paani.

The "Launchpad Studio" programme commenced from September 6 at Google's headquarters in San Francisco and will last for a period of four months.

The starting point for Google Launchpad Studio was aimed at the data-rich medical industry, with the companies involved in the six-month program including the likes of BrainQ, CytoVale, and Byteflies.

Via - New Indian Express

Google's CapitalG Leads $21.5M Funding of Gurgaon-based Aye Finance

Gurgaon-based Aye Finance, a provider of loans to small businesses, has raised $21.5 million (~₹145.2 crore) in its Series C round led by CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), the venture capital fund owned by Google'a parent Alphabet Inc., reported LiveMint.

Other investors who also participated in this round includes existing investors SAIF Partners and LGT, who were part of a $10.5 million investment in 2016.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds into business operations and technology. Till date, Aye Finance has raised a total of $68.4 million in ten different funding rounds.

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

Aye Finance offers micro-loans to small businesses in India that are not on the radar of banks and traditional financing companies, and also don’t qualify for programs run by the likes of Flipkart and Amazon.

Till date, Aye Finance has disbursed more than ₹500 crore to 60,000 small and medium businesses. It also claims to have around ₹350 crore in assets under management (AUM).

“CapitalG’s access to Google expertise in scaling businesses using analytics and technology will strongly supplement our approach. We intend to cover the large unaddressed MSME finance market that other finance providers have found difficult to service,” said Sanjay Sharma, managing director, Aye Finance in a statement.

According to Kaushik Anand, India head of CapitalG, MSMEs form the backbone of the Indian economy since they contribute a large portion of its GDP; however, they lack access to formal credit.

“Over the last few years, Aye has proven that their model is one of the most efficient ways to deliver credit to underserved MSMEs across industry clusters. We look forward to working with Aye and helping them use technology to address under-penetrated segments of the MSME credit market,” added Anand.

Notably, Aye Finance is second investment of CapitalG in India as earlier, in January 2017 it participated in $15 million funding round of Bangalore-based Cuemath, an after-school maths learning startup. Earlier, when CapitalG was Google Capital, it had invested in India's health-tech startup Practo.

In India, Google made its first direct investment in an Indian startup, picking up a minority stake in Bengaluru-based hyper-local concierge and delivery startup Dunzo.

Alphabet has three main investment arms through which it keep investing in startups built beyond the Googleplex, including GV, CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) and Gradient Ventures, a VC fund focused on artificial intelligence, as well as strategic investments made out of its corporate arm and individual business units.

Google's CapitalG Leads $21.5M Funding of Gurgaon-based Aye Finance

Gurgaon-based Aye Finance, a provider of loans to small businesses, has raised $21.5 million (~₹145.2 crore) in its Series C round led by CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), the venture capital fund owned by Google'a parent Alphabet Inc., reported LiveMint.

Other investors who also participated in this round includes existing investors SAIF Partners and LGT, who were part of a $10.5 million investment in 2016.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds into business operations and technology. Till date, Aye Finance has raised a total of $68.4 million in ten different funding rounds.

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

Aye Finance offers micro-loans to small businesses in India that are not on the radar of banks and traditional financing companies, and also don’t qualify for programs run by the likes of Flipkart and Amazon.

Till date, Aye Finance has disbursed more than ₹500 crore to 60,000 small and medium businesses. It also claims to have around ₹350 crore in assets under management (AUM).

“CapitalG’s access to Google expertise in scaling businesses using analytics and technology will strongly supplement our approach. We intend to cover the large unaddressed MSME finance market that other finance providers have found difficult to service,” said Sanjay Sharma, managing director, Aye Finance in a statement.

According to Kaushik Anand, India head of CapitalG, MSMEs form the backbone of the Indian economy since they contribute a large portion of its GDP; however, they lack access to formal credit.

“Over the last few years, Aye has proven that their model is one of the most efficient ways to deliver credit to underserved MSMEs across industry clusters. We look forward to working with Aye and helping them use technology to address under-penetrated segments of the MSME credit market,” added Anand.

Notably, Aye Finance is second investment of CapitalG in India as earlier, in January 2017 it participated in $15 million funding round of Bangalore-based Cuemath, an after-school maths learning startup. Earlier, when CapitalG was Google Capital, it had invested in India's health-tech startup Practo.

In India, Google made its first direct investment in an Indian startup, picking up a minority stake in Bengaluru-based hyper-local concierge and delivery startup Dunzo.

Alphabet has three main investment arms through which it keep investing in startups built beyond the Googleplex, including GV, CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) and Gradient Ventures, a VC fund focused on artificial intelligence, as well as strategic investments made out of its corporate arm and individual business units.

Aye Finance Raises Rs 10 Cr by Selling Its SME Portfolio to M&M Financial Services

Aye Finance has raised Rs 10 crore funds by selling part of its portfolio, under a securitization deal, to Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services. Through this deal, which was facilitated by IFMR Capital, Aye has further diversified its funding sources, having raised money last year through equity and more recently through debt from India’s biggest PSU Bank SBI and a leading global impact investment manager, Blue Orchard.

Aye Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) licensed by RBI, is headquartered in Gurgaon and serves the credit worthy albeit the underserved MSME sector through a network of 67 branches in 10 Indian States. Founded by career bankers Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley in 2014, Aye has successfully made a ground level connect with India’s thriving MSME sector and offers customized and innovative financial products to match the sectors’ business needs. Since then, it has disbursed over INR 200 crores in loans and has enabled the financial inclusion of over 20,000 micro and small businesses

Commenting on this occasion Mr. Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Aye Finance said “In the Year 2017 we will hit key business milestones, increasing our footprint and loan book to three times the size. As our business expands, we will be looking at diversified ways of raising funds. These additional funds have been raised on the backing of our robust underwriting and sound portfolio. By securitizing part of our loan book, we free up capital which in turn improves our capital adequacy.”

Aye Finance distinguishes itself by utilizing technology in mitigating the challenges faced by MSMEs in securing loans. By deploying a cloud-computing architecture and automating front-end (eCRM), Aye Finance is able to bring down the cost of delivery. It is part of Aye Finance’s vision to leverage technology prowess of today for improving the productivity of field force, detecting frauds and exercising dual control on processes.

With its consistent and organized efforts, the Organization aspires to be recognized as a leadership enterprise in the country.

Aye Finance Raises $8M from Impact Investor Blue Orchard

Aye Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) committed to transforming micro and small enterprise financing in India, has raised $8 million from Blue Orchard, a leading global impact investment manager. The funds were raised through NCDs (non-convertible debentures) with a maturity period of five years

Aye Finance is headquartered in Gurgaon and serves the credit worthy albeit the underserved MSME sector through a network of 39 branches.  Founded by professional bankers Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley in 2014, Aye has successfully made a ground level connect with India’s thriving MSME sector and offers customized and innovative financial products to match the sectors’ business needs.

Blue Orchard, which is headquartered in Switzerland, was founded in 2001 by initiative of the UN as the first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments worldwide. They offer premium investment solutions to qualified investors and provide debt and equity financing to institutions in emerging and frontier markets.

Through this lending, Aye Finance and Blue Orchard are enabling the financial inclusion of millions of small businesses across India presently locked out of the financial system.

Mr. Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director, Aye Finance said “Aye Finance distinguishes itself by utilizing technology in mitigating the challenges faced by MSMEs in securing loans. By deploying a cloud-computing architecture and data science methods to derive insights about each of our industry clusters, we are able to bring down the cost of delivery and offer credit solutions at affordable rates to the micro and small enterprises. It is part of Aye Finance’s vision to leverage technology prowess of today for improving the productivity of field force, detecting frauds, profiling risks and exercising dual control on processes. These additional funds from Blue Orchard will be utilised to further strengthen our funding position and allow us to facilitate the inclusion of a larger number of micro and small businesses in the realm of mainstream economy.”

In March this year Aye Finance received a credit facility of $ 3.1 million from SBI, India’s biggest and oldest Public Sector Bank and in November last year it had raised $10 million (Rs 70 Crore) in Series B Equity led by LGT IV,  SAIF Partners and Accion.

With its consistent and well-organized efforts, Aye Finance aspires to be amongst the country's top NBFC catering to MSME Sector.

Micro-Enterprise Lender AYE Finance Raises Rs 70 Cr in Series B Round

Delhi-based non-banking finance company AYE Finance (AYE) has closed its Series B round of funding of Rs 70 crore from LGT IV and its existing investors SAIF Partners and Accion. AYE is a rapidly-growing provider of loans to micro and small, enterprises across India. It was founded in 2014 by career bankers Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley. AYE uses an innovative approach to make working capital loans available to these underserved enterprises by using a proprietary innovative underwriting methodology that has allowed AYE to enhance its portfolio to more than Rs80 crore.

AYE Finance is an NBFC with a modern thinking and outlook. It has 31 branches across 7 states and has impacted the lives of more than 250,000 people. Its non-cash loan disbursement facilities along with EMI repayment has helped to maintain low cost of operations and overcome cash economy challenges.AYE is one of the few lenders in India that is positioned to effectively and profitably address the debt requirements of about 58 million micro and small enterprises and has scaled up by more than 10X during the past two years while maintaining a superior asset quality. The company will use the capital raised recently to further grow its outreach across the country with a target loan portfolio of more than Rs 2,000 crore over the next 5 years.

AYE uses an innovative industry cluster-based approach to access and evaluate borrowers and is already catering to the credit needs of more than 40 industry clusters across the country. For underwriting “thin file” customers, AYE uses proprietary technologies of industry cluster insights, psychometric mapping and business sciences for regenerating cash-flows. The loans provided by AYE are in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 25 lakhs and support the working capital needs of micro enterprises across India.

Commenting on the Series B fundraising round, Sanjay Sharma, Co-Founder, AYE Finance said, “We are happy to be partnering with LGT IV for the next stage of our growth. Our existing investors, SAIF and Accion too have demonstrated continued faith in us and have contributed in the current round. LGT IV, SAIF and Accion have a proven track record of investing in quality growth companies. I look forward to our association as we take AYE Finance to its next stage of evolution to achieve our common vision of providing comprehensive financial services to small and micro enterprises to power the inclusive growth of the country.”

LGT IV is a reputed international impact investor that invests growth capital in purpose-driven companies with scalable business models. It empowers underserved people with access to affordable products, services and livelihood opportunities.

Jasjit Mangat,Partner with LGT IV said,“We value the impressive track record of AYEFinance in providing financial services to MSMEs. It has been founded on an innovative and insightful process that derives the best from its highly experienced promoters, and a high-energy team united under a shared vision.”

Rajat Arora, Investment Manager with LGTIV said, “We are happy to be partnering with AYEin the next stage of growth in a sector that has immense potential for growth.”

Vishal Sood, Partner with SAIF Partners added, “We believe that AYE Finance has developed the right set of capabilities to profitably serve the underserved space of MSME Finance. Its consistent performance is a testimony to its unique business model for sourcing and evaluating borrowers efficiently and delivering superior value to its MSME customers.”

Accion has provided capital and advisory services support to AYE since its seed stage investment through Accion Venture Lab. Vikas Raj, Managing Director at Accion Venture Lab said, “AYE Finance is one of the most exciting companies in our portfolio of global investments that are focussed on using innovative underwriting and acquisition methods to serve micro and small enterprises. Through its unique cluster-based process, technology and high quality team, AYE is benefitting the large number of micro and small enterprises that are the engine of growth for the Indian economy.”

With the best blend of brick and mortar and financial technologies to deliver a low-cost and high touch-point business, AYE has successfully been able to contribute to the financial inclusion and has helped over 10,000 micro enterprises move to mainstream banking.