Standard Chartered PE invests $50 million in IFMR Capital

The fresh round will help firm boost its business in affordable housing finance, vehicle finance, agriculture finance and microfinance

IFMR Capital is raising $50 million from Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE), with the first tranche of $17 million already having come in. Existing investor Leapfrog has partially sold its stake in the company.

This investment will take the total funds raised by IFMR Capital since 2014 to $104 million.

The investment comes close on the heels of IFMR Capital's second institutional funding of $25 million raised from Eight Road Ventures in November, 2016.

The fresh round will help the company to further strengthen its business in unbanked sectors including affordable housing finance, small business, vehicle finance, agriculture finance and microfinance.

It will also enable the company to bolster its product innovation, and address the capital needs of a growing breed of new-age financial institutions in other sectors.

As part of the transaction, existing investor Leapfrog has partially sold its stake in the company. Leapfrog had invested $29 million in IFMR Capital in 2014 and will remain a key investor.

Since inception in 2008, IFMR Capital has enabled over 100 financial institutions (originators) to raise debt from the capital market. It has facilitated debt financing of more than $6 billion to its originators serving over 25 million individuals in 500 plus districts of the country. IFMR Capital has also launched three domestic alternative investment funds offering mid to long-term debt funding to these originators.

Kshama Fernandes, Managing Director and CEO, IFMR Capital said "This is a significant milestone for IFMR Capital, as we aim to create a robust debt platform in India for connecting high-quality financial institutions operating in under-banked markets with capital market investors. SCPE's equity investment will strengthen our ability to work with a much larger number of originators across asset classes in the coming years and make access to financial services a reality for millions of low-income households and small enterprises in India."

The closure of this equity round with Eight Roads and SCPE empowers IFMR Capital to build new frontiers in capital markets for financial inclusion including building out new investor markets as well as driving liquidity and most efficient price discovery in these markets, said, Sucharita Mukherjee, CEO, IFMR Holdings and Vice Chair, IFMR Trust.