Mumbai: Non-banking finance company Veritas Finance Pvt Ltd on Thursday said it had raised Rs 200 crore in a series D investment round led by private equity firm Norwest Venture Partners.
Veritas Finance, which began operations in 2015, focusses on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The company has over 21,000 customers and 132 branches across the country.
Existing investors CDC Group Plc and UK’s Development Finance Institution, and anchor investor P. Surendra Pai also participated in the latest funding round.
Veritas proposes to use the additional capital to grow in existing markets to help augment the capital required by MSMEs for business expansion and for asset creation.
“MSMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy. Considering they are an underserved segment, they continue to need access to the formal credit system. As a company, constantly look at innovating our products and services by building a robust credit appraisal system. Through this round of funding, besides expansion, we will also strengthen our technology, which will help us achieve higher productivity and bring down the cost of servicing micro-businesses,” according to D. Arulmany, managing director and chief executive at Veritas Finance.
The lender has built a loan book of Rs 500 crore since starting operations in 2015.
“Veritas Finance is uniquely positioned to drive growth and provide financial services to micro, small and medium enterprises in India. We look forward to working with the Veritas Finance team to further enhance their footprint, services and technology by bringing more value to customers,” said Sumer Juneja, director at Norwest Venture Partners.
Investment bank Avendus Capital was the financial adviser to Veritas Finance.
The transaction comes at a time when the non-banking lending sector has been hit by a liquidity crisis, triggered by the defaults declared by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS).
On Wednesday, American PE investor TPG Growth said it had led a $42 million investment in commercial vehicles financier Ess Kay FinCorp.