NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, November 14, 2016

IFMR Capital, which helps financial institutions serving poor people raise funds, has received $25 million in funding from Eight Roads Ventures, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Ltd.

This is Chennai-based IFMR Capital’s second round of institutional funding. The company raised $29 million from impact investment fund Leapfrog Investments in March 2014. Leapfrog has made a partial exit through the latest round of funding.

IFMR Capital connects high-quality non-banking financial companies working among financially excluded households and businesses, such as microfinance, affordable housing finance, small business finance, agricultural finance and vehicle finance, with investors in existing and emerging debt capital markets.

IFMR Capital was established in 2008.

The fresh round of investment will help IFMR Capital grow its existing business and explore other opportunities across new products and sectors. “We are keen on expanding our focus into more sectors and some of the areas that we are keenly looking at are MSME lending and fintech firms. We believe that with our credit underwriting experience and use of data, we can help these firms to be ready to tap the capital markets as they grow,” said managing director and chief executive Kshama Fernandes.