Bhubaneswar-based NBFC-MFI Annapurna Finance on Friday said it has raised funds worth USD 15 million (about Rs 117 crore) from Proparco in Series A2 round.
Proparco is the private sector financing arm of the French public entity Agence Fran aise de D veloppement Group (AFD Group). The Non-Banking Financial Company-Micro Finance Institution (NBFC-MFI) will use the funds to grow its loan book, invest in technology, expand geographically and further its vision of enabling financial inclusion at scale, a release said.
“We continue to invest heavily in our tech capabilities and operations to further boost the financial inclusion objectives of Annapurna over the next decade and strive to take it towards our larger banking ambitions,” the NBFC-MFI’s Managing Director Gobinda Chandra Pattanaik said. With these fresh funds, the total funding round size of the NBFC-MFI amounts to USD 100 million.
This is the fourth capital raise by the micro lender in the last 15 months, after attracting a USD 30 million investment from Nuveen Global Impact Fund in March 2021, USD 20 million from DEG in November 2021 and USD 35 million from Encourage Capital, Accion and existing investor Oikocredit, it said. Annapurna Finance offers micro-credit loans, home improvement, and MSME loans to individuals and small businesses. It has a presence in 20 states with over 980 branches in the country.
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