Muthoot Microfin CEO, others back microfinance institution for women Mitrata

Women-focused microfinance institution Mitrata has raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from a group of high net worth individuals, including chief executive of Muthoot Microfin, Sadaf Sayeed. The company was advised by InCred Capital for the fundraise.

The non-banking financial company provides rural women with credit and was formerly known as Sona Finance. The company, Mitrata Inclusive Financial Services, started lending under the NBFC entity in 2017. 

Mitrata says it started as a programme for prevention of child labour in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. It later expanded its work to Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and then to Samastipur in Bihar. The company claims to have over 10,000 active clients. 

“I believe that India’s growth journey is incomplete without the large-scale participation of women in it. However, this cannot happen if finance and, above all, targeted impact-driven finance is absent from the ecosystem,” said Dr Aqueel Khan, chief executive officer of Mitrata in a statement, adding that the company is providing financial services in rural areas. 

The NBFC sector has been facing strong headwinds after the financer IL&FS meltdown, with a severe liquidity crunch facing the sector.

Similar deals:

In July, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal invested Rs 25 crore in Bengaluru based NBFC-MFI Chaitanya India Fin Credit.

ShubhLoans had raised nearly Rs 30 crore from Saama Capital and other investors in 2018.

In September 2018, Bengaluru based OnEMI Technology solutions, which runs microloans platform Kissht, had raised Rs 195 crore from vertex Ventures and Sistema Asia Fund.