Tag: india

Incofin invests INR 35 crores or USD 4.3 million in India’s rural affordable housing finance market by partnering with Varashakti Housing Finance (VHF) becoming its first institutional investor. The series A funding comes from the Incofin India Progress Fund.

VHF, led by Ms. Sahaana Sankar, focuses on the rural housing finance market, offering loans for asset creation in three South Indian states. With the loans benefiting women, who serve as either primary borrower or co-applicant, VHF has catered more than 4,200 borrowers till date. This ensures that women have equal rights and access to finance and opportunities for asset creation.

Director of VHF, Ms. Sahaana Sankar, founded VHF in 2017 with a mission make the aspirational dream homes of low-income households a reality. “We are excited to join forces with Incofin. This funding allows us to expand our business, scale up the organisation and further impact the lives of the rural underserved segment and enhance overall borrower experience. We will benefit immensely from Incofin’s global experience and value creation and look forward to including them in our journey!”

 

The Incofin India Progress Fund (IPF), launched in 2021, is a private equity fund to support promising entrepreneurs with growth capital. Financial incuclusion is one of the two main focus points for the impact fund. Commenting on IPF’s third investment in ihe financial inclusion space, Aditya Bhandari, Partner and Regional Director Asia Equity for Incofin: “With this investment, Incofin reinforces its mission to invest with a gender lens and to support climate resilient solutions. We see a large opportunity in the rural Indian affordable housing finance industry and believe that VHF’s experienced team together with its strong technology platform will realise success while achieving deep impact goals.”

As of June 2023, VHF offers home loans, home improvement loans, loans against property, small ticket business loans and reported an asset under management of INR 119 crores with 28  branches. VHF aims to reach an asset under management of INR 1,750 crores by catering to 30,000 borrowers in the next five to seven years.

 

31/07/2023

IMPACT ON CLIMATE

Through the #ImpactOnClimate-series, Incofin shares examples on how financial inclusion can advance climate-smart solutions and drive inclusive progress. A series of impactful projects of all shapes and sizes in emerging countries that address climate change, and help people adapt to and be more resilient to climate hazards. We at Incofin hope these stories of entrepreneurs, of financial institutions, of cooperatives, of impact organisations around the world can inspire how impact investors can contribute to a sustainable transition to a climate resilient economy.

Climate change is now. We must ensure that the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change – who are often already among the most vulnerable – are not left behind. Climate change is as much an environmental challenge as it is one of livelihood and social justice. Low-income communities (not the least women in those communities) are on the frontline of the dire effects of climate change. With the proper financial and technical solutions they are able to adapt, build resilience and mitigate climate change. Financial inclusion is well positioned to play a key role in empowering low-income vulnerable populations to adapt to climate change.

In this first episode, we take you to India and introduce you to Mufin Green Finance, pioneer in climate financing solutions in India.

The company’s mission is not only to bring about an environmental transformation, but also to create a positive social impact in India (financial inclusion and climate sustainability).

Mufin Green is a leading provider of loans for income generation through electric vehicles (EV), charging infrastructure and swappable batteries. By propelling the electrification of the transport sector in India, Mufin Green has managed to reduce over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions since its inception in 2016. This has not only impacted the carbon footprint reduction, but has also resulted in financial inclusion, more income generation, and women empowerment.  

One of the e-rickshaw drivers supported by Mufin Green is Mustaqi Imad. She used to stay at home to take care of the household, but since her husband passed away, she had to look for a new source of income to take care of her four children. She knocked on Mufin’s door and today she is the proud owner and driver of an electric rickshaw. This activity generates a stable income for her and her family.

“I first drove a diesel rickshaw, but it became increasingly costly due to rising fuel prices. Moreover, it also made a lot  of noise and the driver’s seat would become uncomfortably hot, especially in summer with outside temperatures as high as 40 to 45 degrees. This e-rickshaw stays cool, doesn’t make much noise, and is a lot cheaper to use.”

In fact, by 2050, 215 million urban, low-income people will be exposed to average summer temperatures above 35°C. On the front line, India experienced record heat waves last summer, reaching over 49°C in some parts of the country.

Because of Mufin Green’s crucial role in boosting the importance of electric mobility in India while including more vulnerable populations, Incofin made an investment in the company through its India Progress Fund in 2022.

11/06/2023

Incofin announces it has held a successful final closing for its India Progress Fund (IPF). Investors entrusted USD 77 million of capital to continue investing in the Indian rural economy focusing on financial inclusion and the agri-food value chain, two sectors which make the deepest social impact in the country.

Incofin launched the private equity fund in the summer of 2021 to build upon Incofin’s decade long strong Indian footprint with successful growth capital investments. The final investor base is comprised of a diverse set of private and institutional investors including Korys, British International Investment (BII), Proparco, The Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO Invest), the SDG Frontier Fund, the King Baudoin Foundation, several Belgian family offices and since recently also the Indian development bank and Fund of Funds SIDBI.

The Indian economy will continue to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world in the next few years and the funds wants to support promising entrepreneurs who create tangible and sustainable impact through patient capital, mentoring and access to a global network. The fund is already off to a strong start, with almost half of the fund invested in innovative companies such as MSME finance company Namdev, technology-focused supply chain company SuperZop, agrofintech company Unnati and India’s largest fruit and vegetable platform Sayhadri Farms. IPF’s latest investment was in Mufin Green, financial services provider for Electric Vehicles.

09/02/2023

A year after Incofin India Progress Fund’s first investment in SuperZop, Incofin invested a second tranche in SuperZop. The amount of the second investment tranche, after the USD 1 million investment in 2021, is USD 2.7 million (INR 20 Cr).

This first year of investment was marked as a year of growth for our Indian partners, which confirmed Incofin’s trust and the trust of all the investors of the Incofin India Progress Fund to make this second investment.

?SuperZop has supported in a year time + 2,800 farmers by enabling market linkages, resulting in better prices.

?The company successfully expanded its presence in Surat, Nashik and Raighad.

?The monthly orders increased by 2.4x and the number of actively ordered stores tripled.

?SME retailers doubled on SuperZop’s platform

?SuperZop delivered more than 20,000 tons of safe and high-quality commodities.

?Various range of products was launched (+ 100 stock units), with 30% monthly growth in its own retail brand (Khetika) for agriculture products like nuts.

 

23/11/2022
Mufin Green Finance announces its Series A funding from the Incofin India Progress Fund. Incofin invested about USD 5.7 million to enhance financial inclusion in the sector of electrical vehicles in India. Founded in 2016, Mufin Green Finance is the first first of its kind, a non-banking company providing financial services to companies of electrical vehicles. In that way, Mufin has reduced over 100,000 tonnes of carbon footprints.

Delighted to partner with Incofin, Kapil Garg, Co-founder and Director of Mufin Green commented: “This funding has put us in the forefront of an organised electrical vehicles financing sector. We are planning to disburse income-generating loans worth INR 5,000 Cr [almost 620 million euro] in the next 5 years, which will result in an overall reduction of 4 million tonnes of carbon emissions.”

Aditya Bhandari, Partner and Co-Head Asia of Incofin is proud of Incofin’s investment in Mufin: “This investment clearly aligns with our vision of financial inclusion and climate efforts. Mufin thrives on its diversified business model and strong balance sheet structure. Given Mufin’s strategic tie-ups with electrical vehicles ecosystem players, we firmly believe that the company will play a crucial role in boosting the importance of electrical transport in India and create a positive economic and environmental impact.” 

As far as Mufin’s financing products go, it currently consists of electric 2, 3, and 4-wheelers, as well as other elements of the EV ecosystem, including chargers, charging stations, batteries and battery top up loans for its customers.

As per Rajat Goyal, Co-founder of Mufin Green Finance, the market of electrical vehicles is fast evolving and there is a strong push from various stakeholders: “The investment from Incofin is a solid validation on our climate focused financing mission. We are focused on catering to the underserved or low-income segment and create a meaningful social and climate impact.”

04/10/2022
The USD 25 million (INR 196 crore) funding round in Light Microfinance was led by British International Investment (BII) with existing investors Incofin, Nordic Microfinance Initiative and Triple Jump. Light Microfinance is one of the fastest growing MFIs in India and aims to provide responsible financial services for low-income families excluded from the financial system in India, using a strong technology platform. It reaches over 200,000 clients, exclusively women in rural and semi-urban areas.

Chauhan is one of those women. She has been a member of Light Microfinance for over five years. As the primary wage earner of a six-member family, she was in dire need of income augmentation. She didn’t start in cattle rearing, but with the first of her loans from Light Microfinance, she started vegetable farming. Eventually, her business acumen enabled Chauhan to expand. Her income increased and she has even planned to hire two employees.

This new funding will be used for geographical expansion into new states to diversify the company’s product lines and continued investments in technology and digital initiatives. Co-founder and Managing Director of Light Microfinance, Deepak Amin, comments: “India continues to see a huge demand for financial services, especially in rural India as households try to recover from financial difficulties faced by them due to the pandemic and at the same time get integrated into the mainstream Indian economy. Light Microfinance aims to be a key pillar of this growth story by delivering timely, high-quality financial services to its customers.“

22/09/2022