(MENAFN- KNN India) New Delhi, May 8 (KNN) In a boost to lending activities for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India, fintech lender Lendingkart has raised USD 10 million via External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) from Switzerland-based impact investment manager BlueOrchard.
The capital infusion, announced by the company on Tuesday, will be deployed specifically for onward lending to the MSME sector.
BlueOrchard specialises in facilitating impact investments that connect entrepreneurs in emerging and frontier markets with global investors. To date, the firm has invested over USD 11 billion across more than 100 countries, backing over 300 million people through December 2023.
Harshvardhan Lunia, Founder and CEO of Lendingkart Group, remarked on the fundraise, "As an MSME finance specialist, Lendingkart will continue to support small and micro businesses to flourish, create jobs, drive economic development, and foster entrepreneurship, thereby contributing to overall socio-economic progress."
The announcement comes on the heels of Lendingkart reporting a net profit of Rs 116 crore at the group level for the financial year 2022-23. In June 2023, the company had raised Rs 200 crore in long-term debt funding from growth-stage debt financing platform EvolutionX Debt Capital.
Lendingkart has also recently forged a co-lending partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, the NBFC arm of the Mahindra Group, to foray into co-lending for MSME loans.
The funding bolsters Lendingkart's position in the rapidly growing MSME lending space, where non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) have outpaced traditional banks in credit growth.
According to Reserve Bank of India data for 2022-23 and the first nine months of 2023-24, NBFC credit to MSMEs grew by 21.2 per cent and 42.4 per cent year-on-year, significantly higher than the 12.7 per cent and 12.4 per cent growth witnessed by banks over the same periods. This trend highlights NBFCs' ability to offer tailored financing solutions to the MSME segment.
(KNN Bureau)
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