Avanti Finance, a Bengaluru-based technology-led NBFC focused on financial inclusion, has raised $4.2 million (₹120 crores) in its Series B funding round from Dia Vikas Capital, existing investors IDH Farmfit Fund, NRJN Family Trust, Rabo Partnerships and select HNIs. The company’s early investors include The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Oiko Credit & Nomura.
Dia Vikas Capital is a subsidiary of Opportunity International Australia, which partners with Inclusive financial service providers with innovative, sustainable, resilient, scalable solutions that address the complex nature of poverty and leverage digital technologies to scale and sustain them.
Avanti Finance previously raised $24 million in a Series B funding round in April last year. With the current funding, the total amount raised to date stands at around $80 million.
Rahul Gupta, CEO of Avanti Finance, said, “We are delighted to have Dia Vikas Capital partner in Avanti’s journey to usher in a next-gen financial inclusion platform that is focused on creating sustainable livelihoods for the next 100 million households that are un/underserved. The repeat investment from our existing shareholders is also a strong validation of our transformational asset-light and capital-efficient model. This growth capital will be used to increase our loan book, further strengthen the capabilities of our deep tech platform for ongoing innovation of frictionless credit for our customers and augment our channels in both rural & urban segments.”
Arpita Pal Agrawal, MD & CEO of Dia Vikas Capital said, “We are really excited to partner with Avanti with their vision and work to create impact at scale across India by combining the power of technology and a curated network of diverse partners to offer hyperlocal, crowdsourced, fit for purpose loan products to enhance the financial well being of low-income households.”
Founded in 2018 by Rahul Gupta, Avanti Finance offers small-ticket loans primarily for income generation, and working capital to micro-enterprises and has made an encouraging foray in the urban gig worker segment.
The company has developed a diversified, asset-light and unique distribution network of curated partners consisting of smaller financial institutions, agritech players and fintech partners that collectively originate and serve its customers at over 700 branches spread across 27 states, and 430+ districts. It is a leader in co-lending for the microfinance segment and has partnered with reputed financial institutions for the same which makes it both scalable and capital-efficient.
Avanti has served 900,000 low-income households with an AUM of ₹1640 crores. 90% of its borrowers are women served via an assisted technology model, with loan products carefully designed to mirror livelihood-specific cashflows enabled by Avanti’s deep tech and highly agile platform.
