Aye Finance raises ₹125 crore from Dutch bank, aims to help women entrepreneurs

• Aye Finance, a startup in the lending space, has raised ₹125 crores from the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank – FMO.
• The startup has so far lent ₹2,500 crore to over 1,80,000 customers and has a loan book of ₹1,430 crore.
• In March 2019, Aye Finance has also raised funding from Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc.’s Growth Equity Investment Fund – CapitalG.

Aye Finance, an MSME lender raised ₹125 crores from the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank – FMO.

The startup has so far lent ₹2,500 crore to over 1,80,000 customers with a loan book of ₹1,430 crore.

With the latest round of funding, Aye Finance plans to offer financial services to women entrepreneurs through a gender finance programme.

“While we have women as co-applicants for over 95% of our loans, we believe we can do more in enabling the women micro enterprises of India to bring about a more transformative impact on the economy. We expanded our branch network this year to the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Maharashtra which have a prevalence of women entrepreneurship,” said Sanjay Sharma, MD and Founder of Aye Finance.

Founded in 2014, Aye Finance has also earlier raised funding from Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc.’s Growth Equity Investment Fund – CapitalG. It is also backed by SAIF Partners, Falcon Edge, Accion, LGT and MAJ Invest.