Aye Finance allocates Rs 100 cr for credit to women micro enterprises

Fintech lender Aye Finance on Wednesday said it has allocated Rs 100 crore for Shakti Loan in current financial year and targets to extend credit to 10,000 women engaged in micro enterprises.

Aye said it has developed Shakti Loan in collaboration with CGAP, a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organisations, including the World Bank, UNDP, and Mastercard Foundation, which works to advance the lives of poor people, especially women, through financial inclusion. Incorporated in 2014, Aye is backed by CapitalG, Elevation Capital, Light Rock, Alpha Wave, A91 Partners and MAJ Invest. Since its inception, the lender said it has enabled the financial inclusion of over 6.5 lakh micro businesses having disbursed over Rs 7,000 crore to them.

Also read: Venture capital platform Capfort to raise Rs 200 cr maiden fund

“We are very optimistic about Shakti Loan being the game changer for women micro enterprises and have allocated INR 100 crore to this product in the current financial year,” said Niraj Kaushik, Deputy CEO, Aye Finance. Aye’s Shakti Loan has been designed to address the challenges women-led businesses face to ensure adequate capital is available for them to help them unlock their tremendous growth potential, the lender, which provides unsecured loans, said in a release.

“By providing affordable credit, we hope the tailored nature of Shakti Loan will help unlock the growth potential of women micro-entrepreneurs and contribute to the advancement of women’s economic empowerment in India,” said Xavier Faz, CGAP’s Lead, Financial Services for Equality and Growth.