Led · Series C · Sep 2018

Founded in 2016 by Ashutosh Sharma, Ummeed Housing Finance is a Gurugram-based platform that provides affordable housing loans and secured small-ticket business loans to self-employed individuals in the low- and middle-income segments. The company operates with a team of about 1,300 employees across 115 branches and is active in seven states in North and Central India. Ummeed has grown at over a 60% CAGR since inception and emphasizes good asset quality and a robust liability franchise. Its lender mix includes NHB, PSU banks, private sector banks, and DFIs such as the United States International Development Finance Corporation. The company recently received an upgrade in its CARE credit rating, reflecting strengthened financial health. Management is targeting expansion into central and southern India using fresh capital while continuing to serve underserved communities. Ummeed Housing Finance has secured a loan of up to $20 million from the US International Development Finance Corporation. The article frames the item as a debt facility but does not provide lender terms such as interest rate, tenor, or covenants. The report includes no details on the company's products, business model, customer base, operating metrics, or past funding rounds. It also does not disclose the intended use of proceeds or any planned strategic initiatives tied to the financing. The item appears in an India Digest, indicating the company's relevance to the Indian market. The same digest notes, separately, that fintech firm Kiwi is planning to raise $15 million. Ummeed Housing Finance is a Gurugram-based non-bank housing finance company founded in January 2016 by Ashutosh Sharma that provides loans to families with low and informal incomes. It offers home and construction loans ranging from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 25 lakh and also provides loans against property. Its key markets are Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region. The company aims to disburse over Rs 1,000 crore in loans to more than 12,000 customers. Management plans to aggressively double assets under management to Rs 1,300 crore over the next 18 months. The firm intends to use the latest funding to expand operations, strengthen its technology platform and enter new geographies. Ummeed Housing Finance is a Gurgaon-based housing finance company founded in 2016 that serves informal and low-income customers in Tier-II and Tier-III towns through 26 hubs across Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi NCR and Uttar Pradesh. Its primary product is affordable housing loans; it also offers secured business loans to the MSME sector. The company has built a fully digitised loan approval and disbursal process enabling quick turnaround and has tapped a diversified mix of domestic and foreign banks and financial institutions as lenders. UHFL raised Rs 164 crore (about $23.5 million) in a Series D equity round led by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, which acquired a minority stake; existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada also participated. The firm will use the proceeds to expand into new geographies, strengthen its technology platform and build state-of-the-art underwriting practices. Management says the round provides clear visibility on the equity front and aims to aggressively double Assets Under Management to Rs 1,000 crore over the next 12-18 months. Ummeed Housing Finance provides housing loans to families with low and informal incomes, offering loans from Rs 300,000 to Rs 2.5 million for purchase, construction, improvement, extension and loans against property. The lender focuses on Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region. Founded in January 2016 by Ashutosh Sharma, the company aims to expand its presence and grow its loan book. It plans to increase its loan book from Rs 200 crore to over Rs 350 crore by the end of the current financial year. The company’s product set and target geographies are positioned to serve underserved affordable housing demand in northern India.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2018

Founded in 2014 by ex-city broker Ben Pugh, Farmdrop pivoted from a click-and-collect service to door-to-door delivery while maintaining a marketplace that bypasses mass supermarkets. The platform sells over 2,000 products and says 80 percent of its fresh produce is sourced directly from 208 sustainable farmers and independent food makers. Since 2014 the company says it has generated over £5 million in revenue for small-scale British farmers and is on track to achieve £10 million in annualised revenues before the end of 2018. Farmdrop uses electric vans for last-mile delivery and launched a second hub in Bristol and Bath in September 2017 in addition to London. The new capital will be used to fund further U.K. expansion, with plans to double the number of households it can deliver to in the next six months and to open a northern hub in Manchester by the end of 2019. Farmdrop is an online grocery marketplace that bypasses wholesalers and supermarkets to connect consumers directly with farmer-producers. It launched in 2014 as a click-and-collect service and has since pivoted to door-to-door delivery while retaining its direct-to-consumer marketplace model. The platform says it pays producers roughly 75% of the final shelf price, which the company frames as about double what farmers typically receive from supermarkets. Farmdrop reported annualised revenues of £3 million earlier this year. The service positions itself as a profitable route to market for smaller farmers and as a source of fresher, farmer's-market quality ingredients for customers. The company plans to use new funding to improve customer experience, develop technology for farmers to manage inventory, and open distribution hubs outside London, with Bristol planned for later in 2017. Farmdrop operates a tech platform that lets consumers select food from over 70 farmers and producers and place orders for home delivery. Producers prepare the orders and the company delivers them to customers' homes using small electric vans. The service offers home delivery across most of London, free for orders over £25. Led by Ben Pugh, Farmdrop raised £3m in funding to grow its customer and producer base. The company intends to use the funds to expand both its customers and producer network. The funding round was reported on 06/02/2016.

Participated · Series C · Apr 2018

Varthana Finance operates as an NBFC dedicated to the affordable education sector, underwriting loans that help low- and middle-fee private schools improve facilities, purchase assets, and expand capacity. The firm’s core offering is long-term, tailored financing that enables schools—especially those in peri-urban and rural areas—to invest in classrooms, technology, and critical water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure. By targeting this underserved segment, Varthana aims to raise overall learning standards and attendance, with a particular emphasis on improving outcomes for girls. International impact investors have consistently backed the model for its blend of social returns and prudent lending practices. In its latest transaction, the company secured about USD 16.5 million in debt, underscoring healthy lender confidence and giving Varthana fresh capacity to grow its loan book. Management believes the added capital will translate into safer, healthier learning environments and support millions of students nationwide. Although the company keeps its operating metrics private, the scale of its recent raise indicates continued momentum in both reach and balance-sheet strength.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2018

Imax Program provides a personalized education program that combines textbooks, tablet-based lesson plans and a system that uses regular school assessment data to generate individualized remedial worksheets. The company serves more than 800 schools and roughly 300,000 students across India and has delivered over 1.7 million individualized remedial worksheets to date. Led by Naveen Mandava and Varun Kumar, Imax Program raised $13.5M in funding to support its growth. The funds are intended to be used for product innovation and geographical expansion. The offering integrates assessment-driven remediation into regular school workflows via tablets and printed materials. The company operates from Bengaluru, India and New York City.

Led · Series B · Nov 2016

Aye Finance is a Gurugram-based non-banking financial company. The company has raised about $30 million (Rs 250 crore) in a Series G round. The Series G was led by Singapore’s ABC Impact. ABC Impact is an investor backed by Temasek and Temasek Trust. The article does not disclose other investors, terms or operating metrics. The report appeared as part of coverage of India deals totaling $363 million. Aye Finance is an Indian non‑banking finance company and microfinance lender focused on providing business loans to MSMEs. The company recently closed a EUR 15 million debt transaction with Invest in Visions GmbH. The deal was announced as a debt fund transaction facilitated in collaboration with Agents For Impact. Articles report the amount as roughly INR 137 crore and say the funding will support lending expansion. Coverage positions Aye Finance as one of the leading MFI/NBFC players in India. No operating metrics (revenue or user counts) were disclosed in the sourced articles. Aye Finance operates a digital lending platform that provides mortgage, hypothecation and term credit to underserved micro enterprises, with an average ticket size of $1,800. The company uses in-house technology and analytics to underwrite and deliver financial solutions tailored to small businesses. To date it has disbursed more than $959 million of credit to over 700,000 unorganized businesses and reports over $959 million of assets under management. Aye has a nationwide footprint across 22 states through 395 offices. Financially, revenue grew 45% to $77.10 million in FY2023 from $53.12 million the prior year, and it delivered $9.59 million of profit after tax in the first six months of FY2024. The company plans to go public in the financial year 2026. Aye Finance is an Alphabet-backed, new-age non-banking finance company that provides credit solutions to small retailers. Last month it launched an on-tap BNPL product called SwitchPe to offer credit lines for procurement of supplies. The company says it will use a recently awarded grant to address working-capital challenges faced by kirana stores and expand SwitchPe’s reach. Through the grant Aye will leverage Unilever’s FMCG expertise to make SwitchPe available to a larger number of grocery-store owners, including women. The article frames the effort against the backdrop that kirana stores account for approximately 88% of India’s retail sector. Aye’s collaboration is via TRANSFORM, which combines grant funding, business insight and wider resources for entrepreneurs. Aye Finance focuses on providing customized business loans to the excluded microenterprise segment, using a proprietary cluster-based credit assessment methodology combined with AI to assess credit risk without traditional documentation. Founded in 2014, the lender says it has addressed the credit needs of over 450,000 unorganized grassroots businesses. The company plans to deploy additional capital to support growth and enable inclusion of microenterprises into the formal economy. Management reports a surge in credit applications as businesses rebuild after pandemic disruptions. The current financing is intended to expand lending capacity to meet this increased demand. Aye emphasizes affordable pricing and tailored products for small entrepreneurs.