Capital G, the growing arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet has led a $22 million (Rs 147 crore) funding round in a microlending platform Aye Finance, a move that marks company first bet in the Indian financial sector.
The Series C funding round witnessed participation from investors such as LGT and SAIF partners. The is the first equity funding for the Gurugram based Aye Finance which has so far raised Rs 200 crore from venture capital firms, while an additional Rs. 500 crore from debt and equity firms.
Aye Finance that claims to be the first fintech company to raise capital from CapitalG competes with Lendingkart, InCred, Capital Float, Indifi Technologies, and many others.
Aye Finance will be utilising the funds to strengthen its business operations and technology. It is also looking forward to expands its loan book which currently stands at Rs. 525 crores.
Sanjay Sharma, MD at Aye Finance said,
We are already a very well-organised technology platform, but we will use some portion of the proceeds to further upgrade it. We will be using a lot more of cloud platforms and integrate machine learning algorithms o take it to the next level, which will include taking our processes on platforms, involving artificial intelligence.
Founded by Vikram Jetley and Sanjay Sharma in 2014, Aye Finance is customer-centric microlending platform catering to the needs of small and micro business borrowers.
The NBFC has 72 branches spread across 10 states in North and South India. The company claims to have disbursed over Rs. 700 crores across 60,000 loans till date. Besides, it also claims to have around Rs 350 crore in assets under management (AUM).
Speaking in the context of CapitalG, the funding marks its 6th investment in Asia’s largest economy. It has previously backed FreshWorks, Quikr, CarDekho, Practo and CueMath and is a growth equity investment fund that helps technology companies scale fast with support from Google’s expertise and resources.