Asian Development Bank issued $30 M in non-convertible debentures to Ugro Capital
The Asian Development Bank has given US $30 million in non-convertible debentures to Ugro Capital, a nonbank financial institution (NBFI) with headquarters in India that offers loans to small and medium-sized businesses.
This is the second funding round from a global development finance institution for Ugro Capital. In December 2023, it completed a similar transaction with the Dutch bank for entrepreneurial development, FMO.
A project of Ugro Capital is a scoring model known as Gro Score, which evaluates clients and makes loan offers using AI and machine learning. The business has also launched a “lending-as-a-service” model in India, collaborating on co-lending with more than ten major NBFIs and public sector banks.
“Impact investors are critical funding partners in enabling us to bridge India’s massive credit gap in the MSME sector,” said Shachindra Nath, the firm’s founder and managing director.
According to Ugro Capital, as of December 2023, it managed assets valued at approximately $1 billion USD. It further stated that during the previous five years, it had raised a total of US $1.1 billion in debt and equity.
The company claims that it has impacted roughly 90,000 small businesses in eight different industries.
