Arohan raises Rs 60-cr funding from Tano Capital

Arohan is the second NBFC MFI in the country with close to Rs 400 crore assets under management spread over four states

Arohan, an Intellecap Group company, today announced that it has raised Rs 60 crore from a fund managed by Tano Capital, an alternate asset management firm founded in 2004 by Chuck Johnson, formerly co-President of Franklin Templeton Investments and CEO of Templeton Worldwide Inc.

This equity infusion bears testament to the growing investor and stakeholder confidence in the growing microfinance sector. Piyush Goenka, Investment Director, Tano Capital said: "Arohan is our first microfinance investment in India till date and given our demographics, believe that Financial Inclusion will be a big play in years to come. The Intellecap group has done pioneering work since 2007 in the sector and we are delighted to be working with them"

Arohan is the second largest Kolkata-based NBFC MFI in the country with close to Rs 400 crore assets under management across 104 branches spread over 38 districts of four states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam.

Vineet Rai, Chairman Intellecap said:  "The present government has clearly signaled utmost seriousness in achieving financial inclusion in India with initiatives like PMJDY, MUDRA and we as a group would be honoured to play our part. Our three NBFC's - Arohan, IntelleCash & IntelleGrow today cover individual, tiny, micro, small & medium enterprises with loan sizes ranging from Rs 10k to Rs 10 crore with a focus on low income states in central, east and NE parts of the country. We have applied to the RBI and see becoming a Small Finance Bank (SFB) as a logical next step in this journey."

Intellecap Group has recently also applied for the SFB (Small Finance Bank) licence and is very well aligned with the RBI focus on the financially underserved Central, Eastern, and North Eastern parts of the country, where socio-economic indicators and financial inclusion are the lowest, and which need more robust measures as far as removal of barriers to banking are concerned.

"We are delighted to get Tano on board as an investor in Arohan.The enhanced net worth will help us implement our growth plans in the 10 low income states starting with Odisha in Apr'15. We offer a wide product suite on the credit side, provide insurance & micropension products to our clients and will soon start liability products as a BC of partner banks," said Manoj Kumar Nambiar, MD, Arohan.

The MFI sector in India (over Rs 35,000 crore of outstanding portfolio across 35 million clients) serves the underserved and the most financially excluded sections of the society.