Belstar Investment and Finance is a non-bank financial company (microfinance institution) operating principally in the Southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. It is affiliated with Hand‑in‑Hand, an NGO focused on livelihood promotion, which is converting its microfinance activities from NGO to for‑profit and transferring its microfinance clients and infrastructure to Belstar. The company focuses on providing loans to low-income households that are unable to access services from commercial banks. Belstar received an approximately US$900,000 investment from the Norwegian Microfinance Initiative (NMI) Frontier Fund. Other investors named in the article include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Swedfund and Aavishkaar Goodwell. As part of the transaction, NMI will have a seat on Belstar’s board.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2010