April 24, 2024: Financing provider Northern Arc has secured $80 million in funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in equal halves of debt and equity components. The firm’s goal is to cater to the diverse retail credit requirements of the under-served households and businesses.
The fresh round of investment will augment the growth of Northern Arc’s outreach program to connect with more end customers, catalysing social impact through improved credit access to customers across its focused sectors, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Northern Arc finances over Rs. 1.5 Lakh crore in credit
As of September 30, 2023, Nort hern Arc has enabled the financing of over Rs 1.5 lakh crore in credit through its technology platform spread across 682 districts in 28 states and seven union territories in India, the company statement mentioned.
Over the last 14 years, the Norther Arc has created a differentiated and comprehensive play on the retail credit ecosystem in India and have developed domain expertise in enabling credit across in six focused sectors- MSME financing, Microfinance, Consumer Finance, vehicle finance (commercial vehicle, two-wheeler and EV finance), affordable housing finance and Agriculture finance.
Additionally, Northern Arc is focused on the climate and renewable financing sector. Their business is supported by its proprietary end-to-end integrated technology product suite customised to multiple sector.
Through its multi-channel approach of lending, placement and fund management, Northern Arc thrust is to raise the supply of credit. Northern Arc manages assets under management of Rs 10,081 crore. The firm has the backing of equity investors including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, LeapFrog, 360 ONE (formerly known as IIFL), Accion, Augusta Investments (known as Affirma Capital), Dvara Trust, and Eight Roads (a proprietary arm of Fidelity).
Northern Arc Capital submitted preliminary papers to SEBI for an initial public offering in February. The IPO will consist of fresh equity shares valued at Rs 500 crore and an offer for sale of up to 2.1 crore equity shares by investor shareholders.
