Aye Finance raises $10 million from responsAbility Investments

Fintech company Aye Finance on August 12 said it has raised $10 million (about Rs 71 crore) in funding from Zurich-based responsAbility Investments AG.

The company had received $5 million from responsAbility earlier this year.

"Aye will be utilising these additional funds to offer business loans to the excluded microenterprise sector to support their growth and enable their inclusion into the formal economy," a statement said.

Aye raised $5 million from responsAbility through NCDs, while the balance $5 million has been issued from a securitisation pool raised by responsAbility that was arranged by JP Morgan.

Key investors in this transaction include the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Alecta.

"We have found support from Indian and global leaders in our mission of providing inclusive finance to the microenterprise sector of India, right since our inception in 2014. And even now, when the NBFC sector is going through a liquidity crisis, Aye has remained unaffected," Aye Finance founder and MD Sanjay Sharma said.

This latest fundraise from responsAbility comes within three months after the company raised Rs 234 crore in series D equity round, he added.

Founded in 2014 by Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley, Aye provides business loans to microenterprises that often struggle to access formal lending channels.

responsAbility manages $3 billion of assets through a range of investment vehicles that provide private debt and private equity to some 540 companies.

Aye has been funded by CapitalG (erstwhile Google Capital), SAIF Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, Accion, LGT and MAJ Invest.