BusinessWire India

Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], August 4: One of India’s leading MSME lending institutions, Vistaar Financial Services Private Limited (Vistaar Finance), has secured a commitment for a loan up to U.S. $50mn from the U.S. government’s development finance institution, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

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Vistaar Finance was founded in 2010 when MSME lending was not very common in India. The company has developed the MSME financing market as a leader in providing long term loans for this segment that has traditionally been unserved or has had to contend with informal high-cost borrowing. Vistaar’s financing has enabled over 2,00,000 MSMEs across 12 states in India since inception to enhance their productive capacity and hence incomes. The company’s clear vision to serve small businesses and be one of the important catalysts in India’s drive towards “Make in India” has taken it to strength of over 2,500 employees and AUM of INR ~3,100 cr as of March 2023. This loan from DFC comes on top of a recent primary equity infusion amounting to ~$36mn from Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth.

India has an MSME financing gap of over $230 billion, or 11% of GDP annually, with women-owned and -led enterprises facing disproportionate barriers to accessing finance. DFC’s support is expected to assist Vistaar in expanding its secured MSME lending portfolio in India with an emphasis on serving women-owned and led enterprises and rural MSMEs.

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Setuka Partners LLP, a boutique advisory firm focused on catalyzing patient capital from international financial institutions for emerging and frontier market enterprises, was the exclusive advisor to this transaction.

Speaking on the development, Avijit Saha, CEO of Vistaar said, “We are extremely thankful to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for committing to this facility, which comes to us at the right time and helps us in our goal of strengthening women’s led entrepreneurship, further deepening our presence in rural markets, and reaching out to more unserved and underserved customers.”

Brahmanand Hegde and Ramakrishna Nishtala, the Founders of Vistaar Finance, said, “In our Vision of ‘Catalyst to the underserved,’ we have created a niche for ourselves empowering small businesses and the self-employed across 12 States in India by providing them with reliable and responsible funding so that they can achieve greater economic and social well-being. We aim to achieve this social goal through grassroots effort without compromising on the pillars of asset quality and profitability that are needed to build a sustainable institution of scale.” “DFC’s $50 million investment in Vistaar Finance will expand access to capital for lending to small women-owned and -led enterprises in rural India facing barriers to financing,” said James Polan, Vice President of DFC’s Office of Development Credit. “DFC is proud to work alongside partners like Vistaar Finance to support increased access to financing for innovative enterprises in India.”

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