by Suman Gupta
Mumbai,April 2019 : Sindhuja Microcredit, a new generation Microfinance company providing access to financial services to bottom of the pyramid households in rural regions across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, has signed USD 4 Million from Carpediem Capital in its first private equity round. Vidura Capital acted as Sindhuja’s exclusive financial advisor and Vertices Partners and Antares Legal acted as legal advisers.
With over a decade of experience in the Micro Finance industry, Abhisheka Kumar and Malkit Didyala founded Sindhuja Microcredit in 2018, with a vision to provide financial services to the financially excluded bottom of the pyramid households through efficient, customer friendly and technology driven solutions.
Sindhuja started loan disbursals in April 2018. Currently, the company operates 23 branches, with over 28,977 active customers. With a strong focus on providing financial assistance across rural regions to women entrepreneurs in India, 90% of Sindhuja’s branches are in rural areas. In a traditionally cash based rural economy, the company is pioneering cashless disbursement and collection and aims to become 100% cashless in the next one year.
Company is addressing the financial inclusion opportunity in the hinterlands through a differentiated approach to traditional microfinance business. Sindhuja has put in place a high quality professional management team which is aligned to building a large scale organisation. Company has laid extensive emphasis on leveraging technology to enhance customer experience as well as reduce operational costs.
Commenting on the fund raise,
Abhisheka Kumar, Managing Director & Malkit Singh Didyala, COO, Sindhuja Micro Credit said, “We are very enthused about our partnership with Carpediem. We look forward to leveraging the experience of Carpediem team to further strengthen our commitment to inclusive growth. The presence of reputed institutional investor will also give lot of comfort to all other stakeholders including the current and potential lenders. We will be using the funds raised to increase our footprint in existing states and exploring new territories as well as for technology advancement.”
Commenting on their investment, Abhishek Sharman, Founder & Managing Director, Carpediem Capital said, “We see a clear growth trajectory for Sindhuja Microcredit given the attractive demographics of the rural markets in which it is a leader. Furthermore, the impact that Sindhuja is creating with women empowerment and financial inclusion is extraordinary. We see value in creating this platform with the founders and aim to provide sustainable and increasingly productive financial opportunities to rural areas in India.”
