UGRO Capital Limited, a leading technology-enabled small business lender, has raised INR 340 crore through a private placement offering of INR 240 crore and QIP of up to INR 101 crore. UGRO Capital Limited was represented by SNG & Partners, a leading law firm in India. UGRO Capital intends to use the proceeds from the funds raised to primarily provide onward lending to the MSME segment and take credit to the last mile. The equity capital raise will further enhance UGRO Capital’s strong capital position and strengthen its balance sheet.

IFU is an independent Denmark government-owned fund offering risk capital to companies in developing countries and emerging markets. IFU is the Danish Development Finance Institution and an impact investor which invests to support sustainable development in developing countries and contribute to the realization of the SDGs by creating better opportunities for people in low and middle-income countries.

Simultaneously, UGRO Capital is raising up to INR 101 crore from long-term shareholders like insurance companies, AIF, and other financial institutions through a Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP).

The transaction was led by Mr. Amit Aggarwal, Senior Partner at SNG & Partners, accompanied by other members of the team from the firm. For the QIP, the transaction team comprised of Associate Partner Soumyajit Mitra, Senior Associate Kawaljeet Kaur, and Associate Rachit Munjal. Further, for the private placement offering of INR 240 crore to IFU, the transaction team comprised of Associate Partner Aditya Vikram Dua, Of Counsel Devyani Dhawan, and Associate Ayushi Parnami.

“We have seen multiple FinTech and NBFCs which were created as private ventures and then being floated in Public Market at a significant premium, it was our desire to create an Institutionally Owned, Independently Supervised and Professionally managed FinTech in the listed world so that the opportunity is available to the large universe of Public Market Institutional Investors, HNIs, AIFs, PMS and Retail Investors,” said Mr. Shachindra Nath, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, UGRO Capital.

UGRO Capital Raise Background: UGRO Capital was envisaged to be built as India’s largest small business financing platform combining the power of Data & Tech and was uniquely created as India’s first listed startup. In 2018, its founder Mr. Shachindra Nath, acquired control of a small listed NBFC ‘Chokhani Securities Limited’ and simultaneously raised capital institutional equity capital from likes of TPG – NewQuest, PAG, ADV Capital, Sameena Capital and other domestic family offices and public market investors.