Veritas Finance raises Rs 30 crore in Series A funding

The company plans to use the funds for its expansion plans and diversify its product and services

Veritas Finance Private Limited, a Chennai-based financial services provider for micro and small enterprises (MSMEs), today announced raising of Series A fund of Rs 30 crore led by Lok advised fund — Sarva Capital.

This round also counts Caspian Impact Investment Adviser as an investor.

This Series A funding will help the company's expansion plans and diversify their product and services.

Venky Natarajan, Managing Partner, Lok Advisory Services, will join the board of Veritas Finance.

Founded in November, 2015 by D Arulmany, Veritas Finance meets the short, medium and long term financial requirements of the financially excluded micro and small enterprises.

 

The company says today, the micro and small businesses segment accounts for the largest share of the credit demand gap. Of the estimated viable debt gap of Rs 29.3 lakh crore, 97% of the debt gap is from micro and small enterprises.The typical customers of Veritas- small and micro entrepreneurs who run bakery, restaurants, provision stores etc. have an average monthly income ranging from Rs 25000 -Rs 60000 with no prior exposure to formal business finance.

Veritas Finance extends loans for the working capital, business expansion as well as asset creation needs. The average size of the loans extended is Rs. 4 lakh.

Veritas has set up 12 branches in Tamil Nadu and plans to further enhance its presence to 35 branches in the next few months. By 2017, the company aims to grow its loan book size from Rs 4 crore to Rs 200 crore, increase customer base from 200 to 5000 and expand to states like Karnataka, Odisha, and Andra Pradesh.

Veritas Finance is supported by P Surendra Pai, former Executive Chairman of Murugappa Group and former Vice-Chairman of Wipro.