India Financial Inclusion Fund Raises $90M Kitty
Monday, November 23, 2009
IFIF will invest in MFI, low-cost housing and companies that provide financial services to the poor.
India Financial Inclusion Fund (IFIF), one of the largest funds focussed on investing in companies playing in the bottom-of-the-pyramid market, has achieved a final close of $90 million. Advised by Hyderabad-based Caspian Advisors, IFIF has raised commitments from the likes of UK’s CDC Group, Global Microfinance Equity Fund and Switzerland’s Social Investment Services.
IFIF started fund-raising last year before the crisis and has managed to close it in a period of 15 months. The interest in the MFI sector has been consistent throughout the period, said Mona Kachhwaha, Director of Investments at Caspian.
“Though some limited partners (LPs) did have some short-term cash flow pressure but it did not translate into a shift in the way they viewed microfinance,” she said.
The fund, apart from microfinance institutions, also invests in “firms that enable the provision of financial services to the poor”. These include companies in areas like housing finance, business correspondents to banks and technology companies in this sector.
