Svasti raises USD 10 mn for branch expansion, MSME financing

Svasti Microfinance has raised a funding of USD 10 million (about Rs 71 crore) for expansion of branch network and increasing MSME financing.

The capital was raised from Adar Poonawalla, Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) and Rajiv Dadlani Group, the Mumbai-based company said in a release.

Till date, Svasti has raised a total capital of USD 17 million.

"Apart from expanding its branch network, Svasti will use the capital raised to expand and increase its MSME loan portfolio and provide other financial services, such as consumer finance and insurance, in partnership with other leading institutions," the release said.

A portion of the funds raised in the current round is being used to provide full exits to Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Bamboo Financial Inclusion Fund, it added.

Svasti was co-founded by Arunkumar Padmanabhan and Narayanan Subramaniam in 2010.

It services around 1.85 lakh customers across 52 branches spread over four states, aggregating a loan portfolio of around Rs 380 crore.

As per the release, Svasti aims to reach a total loan portfolio of Rs 550 crore by 2019-20 and Rs 1,100 crore by 2020-21.