Amid the unprecedented uncertainty brought in by COVID-19, SAVE Solutions, backed by Incofin, has successfully raised its Series B funding of Rs 120 crores from Maj Invest, a Dsh asset management company.
Founded by Ajeet Kumar Singh, Pankaj Kumar and Ajay Kumar Sinha, SAVE Solutions https://saveind.in/, intends to make financial services accessible to underserved rural communities by offering them savings and lending products through its extensive network of touch-points located within their vicinity.
The success of SAVE's model is attributed to the critical need for financial services within reachable limits, which the Business Correspondent business has addressed adequately since the last decade.
With a renewed push on this initiative by RBI and Banks, SAVE's network will expand to more locations and increase the penetration in the existing geographies.
With a longstanding presence in these geographies, SAVE is also leveraging the market understanding to provide credit to rural communities for income generation and business growth through its two NBFCs subsidiaries (MFI and MSME). This synergetic model has resulted in all three entities running profitably.
The investment by Maj Invest will enable SAVE to address the rapid growth planned for its business correspondent network and provide capital for its two lending entities.
"The success is more heartening because it comes at the most challenging time in history. We plan to utilize the funds to capitalize and expand the non-banking finance and micro-financing verticals. We will also invest in IT to firm up our technology base to carry out operations that operate through 100 per cent cashless branches for better client service. We have 12 million clients living in rural areas. Our constant touch with this client base allows us to track the market dynamics and work towards rural employment generation," said Ajeet Kumar Singh.
"Maj Invest is confident that SAVE Solutions will help steer a large number of underprivileged people out of the economic crisis. A more robust, digitally enabled network that provides complete access to financial services is the need of the hour, and we are happy to be part of this mission," said spokespersons at Maj Invest, David Paradiso (Partner) and Siva Vadivelazhagan (Investment Principal).
SAVE Solutions raised its Series A round of funding from Incofin, a Belgium-based impact investor, in September 2017. The funding helped SAVE scale its growing lending businesses. Incofin is in advanced first close stage for its maiden India Equity Fund - focusing on agri and rural finance.
Unitus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to SAVE Solutions, and IC Universal Legal was their legal counsel on this transaction while Khaitan & Co advised Maj Invest.
SAVE Solutions, a Business Correspondent (BC) platform, is a profitable, fast-growing enterprise with a network of around 8,000 touch-points (CSPs) across 30 states & UTs, catering to a customer base of 14 plus million, thus functioning as an extended arm for its banking partners.
Having embarked upon its journey in 2009, SAVE has successfully established its banking BC business with a transaction value of approximately Rs 37,000 crores in FY20 (32 per cent YoY growth).
Leveraging its deeply penetrated network, SAVE has forayed into lending to unserved and underserved population through its two wholly-owned subsidiaries engaged in NBFC-MSME & NBFC-MFI businesses, which are profitable since their first year of operations.
Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with regional offices in India and Peru, Maj Invest manages an AUM of USD 12 billion, out of which around USD 1 billion are in private equity commitments.
Maj Invest Financial Inclusion funds are sector focused, closed-end private equity funds investing growth capital directly into financial institutions across Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
With the recent launch of its third fund, Maj Invest aims to continue delivering attractive financial returns and a positive ESG impact.
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( With inputs from ANI )