Aye Finance mops up $24 mn debt to support micro enterprises

Gurugram based Aye Finance, a non-banking financial company that lends to micro-enterprises, has raised $23.8 million (or Rs180 crore) in debt in the last 15 days from lenders in India and abroad.

The fresh funds come at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a three-month moratorium on term loans for all commercial banks and NBFCs. The moratorium is part of RBI’s plan to deal with the economic crisis due to the Covid-19 related lockdown.

"This fresh round of funds we have raised will be used to address the credit requirements of the micro enterprises to support them during this financial crisis," Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director, Aye Finance said in a statement.

Read: Online lenders in a fix as banks remain undecided on sharing moratorium benefits

Last year, Aye raised over Rs 1,140 crore in debt and equity from investors including Google parent Alphabet’s investment vehicle CapitalG, and other investors such as Falcon Edge, HDFC, ICICI and DCB Bank.

The company has so far raised an estimated $277 million in debt and equity capital. 

Founded in 2014 by Sharma and Vikram Jaitley, Aye Finance offers business loans to micro-enterprises and claims to have 173 branches and 2,900 staffers. The company claims to have offered working capital and fixed capital loans to over two lakh micro-enterprises in India.

Aye Finance has raised equity funds from CapitalG, SAIF Partners, LGT, Falcon Edge and A91 Partners among others. HDFC Bank, SBI, Nabkissan, DCB Bank and Blue Orchard are among its debt lenders.