Aspada Investment Company has made an investment of Rs 10 crore ($1.62 million) in NeoGrowth Credit, a non-bank financial company (NBFC) that extends short term working capital and inventory loans to small merchants in India against future credit and debit card sales.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy, yet there are hundreds of thousands of small merchants in India that are excluded from formal credit and banking channels. Extending transparent, timely and scalable financial offerings to this segment will help to spur business creation in a large market that has had to largely rely on informal sources of capital,” said Piyush Khaitan, Co-Founder and Managing Director of NeoGrowth Credit.
Omidyar Network, during mid-2013 invested Rs 17 crore in NeoGrowth. NeoGrowth’s founders had earlier founded VC-backed electronic payments processing firm Venture Infotek (acquired by AtoS in mid-2010).
“NeoGrowth brings an outstanding team and novel approach in what is a large, vastly underserved, and rapidly-growing market. The credit provided by NeoGrowth will allow small firms to manage working capital, account for inventory fluctuations and seasonality, hire additional employees, and stock new merchandise. We view supporting the small business (SME) segment as a critical priority area and one that is necessary to sustain India’s long term growth trajectory” said Thomas Hyland, Partner of Aspada Investment Advisors.
The Aspada Investment Company is backed with a significant commitment from the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) and works to promote economic opportunity and development in India. Aspada Investment Company is advised by Aspada Investment Advisors, led by Kartik Srivatsa and Thomas Hyland.
In April 2013, Aspada Investment Company announced an investment in an end-to-end fresh vegetable supply chain company, Lawrencedale Agri Processing, which operates in South India to aggregate fresh produce at farm gate and sell to retail consumers in major markets under the LEAF brand.
In January 2014 Aspada Investment Company announced an investment in ThinkLink Supply Chain Services, a provider of turnkey project management, design, skill development, and staffing services in India’s logistics and supply chain sectors. In addition, Aspada Capital Advisors also advises the portfolio of the SONG Fund, an early stage venture capital firm funded by the Soros Economic Development Fund, Omidyar Network, and Google.
