India’s First Public Fintech Startup: UGRO Capital Ltd Announces INR 340 Crore Equity Raise From Marquee Institutional Investors
Private Placement Offer of INR 240 Cr and QIP of up to INR 100 Cr
UGRO Capital Limited (NSE: UGROCAP I BSE: 511742), which was formed as a lending fintech in July 2018 as a listed entity by raising approximately INR 900+ Cr of equity, today announced its second capital raising since its inception. UGRO Capital’s board has approved a preferential allocation of INR 240 Cr to IFU (Investeringsfonden for Udviklingslande) through its Danish Sustainable Development Goals Investment Fund K/S. The raising of equity funds is subject to usual closing conditions, including regulatory and shareholder approvals.
UGRO Capital is simultaneously raising up to INR 101 Cr from long-term shareholders such as insurance companies, AIFs and other financial institutions through a Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP) of up to INR 101 Cr.
Preference allocation: UGRO Capital has entered into a final investment agreement with IFU. IFU is an independent Danish state-owned fund that offers risk capital to companies in developing countries and emerging markets, is the Danish development finance institution and an impact investor that invests to support sustainable development in developing countries and contribute to the realization of the sustainability goals by creating better opportunities for people in low – and middle-income countries. The growth capital from funds collected will primarily be used for further lending, this will assist the MSME segment and take the credit to the last mile. This capital raising will further strengthen UGRO Capital’s strong capital position and strengthen the balance sheet.
Commenting on the fundraising announcement, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, UGRO Capital so, “We have seen several FinTech and NBFCs that were created as private entities and then floated in the public market at a significant premium, it was our desire to create an institutionally owned, independently monitored and professionally managed FinTech in the listed world like that the opportunity is available to the large universe of public market institutional investors, HNIs, AIFs, PMS and retail investors.”
We aim to win 1% market share with 1 million small businesses – it has been our endeavor to change the lives of small businesses and having a global development finance institution like IFU as a partner will help us achieve our mission in a accelerated pace.”
UGRO Capital Raise Background: UGRO Capital was envisioned to be built as India’s largest small business funding platform combining the power of Data & Tech and was uniquely created as India’s first listed startup.
Over the last 4 years, despite broader challenges to the lending industry, UGRO Capital has successfully built an AUM of INR 6000+ Cr and with a monthly disbursement of more than INR 500 Cr as of March 2023. It has truly demonstrated its power to Lending as a Service (LaaS) by being one of the most preferred partners for Banks for Co Lending. Its unique data-driven GRO Score is a leading platform to access credit for small businesses in India and has recently launched the GRO X platform for a fully digital credit through the UPI platform.
