Participated · Debt Financing · Aug 2019

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.

Led · Equity · Dec 2016

Lumos Global is an off-grid solar provider operating in Nigeria. The company announced it raised $90 million in a funding round led by the U.S. Government’s development finance institution, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Lumos said it will use the capital to grow its business in Nigeria and to expand operations to other countries. The deal was reported in TechCabal’s December 7, 2016 roundup. PR Newswire described the investment as the solar industry’s largest ever. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were provided in the article.

Led · Debt Financing · Feb 2016

Sun King bundles solar generation hardware, energy-efficient appliances, installation services and consumer financing to deliver reliable electricity in regions with limited or no grid access. The company’s product line spans low-cost solar kits for lighting and phone charging up to multi-kilowatt inverter systems capable of powering homes, clinics, farms and commercial facilities. Since 2007, it has distributed 29 million solar products worldwide, with 67% of customers gaining electricity access for the first time, and it has extended $1.4 billion in consumer financing through its pay-as-you-go model that lowers daily energy costs to roughly $0.15–$0.20. Sun King currently sells about 330,000 solar kits per month through a network of 470 retail shops and 35,000 field agents operating in 11 African countries. Future plans include deploying 50 million additional solar kits and reaching 200 million people by 2030 while scaling its shop footprint to 1,650 locations and doubling its agent base to 90,000. The firm also intends to introduce higher-capacity solar systems, clean-cooking technologies, smartphones, refrigerators, and other productive-use appliances, targeting 3.8 GW of new distributed solar capacity by decade’s end.