Amicus Capital invests Rs 43 cr in Punjab-based Capital Small Finance Bank

This is the third investment of Amicus Capital, which had earlier invested in Wonderchef and Renewbuy.com

Private equity fund Amicus Capital has made its third bet by investing in Punjab-based Capital Small Finance Bank leading the series B funding round. In this round, the Capital SFB has raised Rs 132 crore, which was led by Amicus through commitment of an investment of Rs 43 crore. Existing investor Pi Ventures also participated in the current round of fund raising.

"Capital SFB has a loyal low cost deposit franchise which is a significant competitive advantage in the current economic environment. We are excited at the prospect of partnering with a bank with consistent track record of growth and profitability, apart from its strong management team, asset quality," said Mahesh Parasuraman, cofounder and partner at Amicus Capital. "Amicus Capital is committed to helping the bank to achieve a leadership position as it expands deeper into Punjab and other neighbouring states."

Capital SFB, which started operations as India’s first small finance bank on April 2016, was founded by Sarvjit Singh Samra in the year 2000 as a local area bank. Other backers of the bank include HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life and Small Industries Development Bank of India (“SIDBI”).

"Capital SFB has grown consistently since inception and holds a market leadership position in the state of Punjab. The current round of capital raise will help the bank deepen its penetration apart from expanding in Haryana, NCT Delhi and Rajasthan," said Sarvjit Singh Samra, founder & MD of Capital SFB. "We are excited at partnering with Amicus Capital, an institutional investor with significant experience in growing and scaling financial services businesses, as the bank focuses on its next leg of expansion," he added.

With the current investment, Amicus Capital- founded by Sunil Theckath Vasudevan and Mahesh Parasuraman- has done its third investment out of its first fund worth $88 mn (Rs 620 crore).

The other two investments include Rs 70 crore of equity funding into celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor’s cookware brand Wonderchef and Rs 60 crore of growth capital infusion into digital insurance aggregator Renewbuy.com.