Annapurna Finance raises USD 20 million from Germany-based DEG

Odisha-based NBFC-MFI Annapurna Finance on Thursday announced an equity investment of USD 20 million (Rs 150 crore) from DEG – Deutsche Investitions – und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, a Germany-based development finance institution.

The fund raised would be channelised to further boost the financial inclusion objectives, thereby getting an increasing number of women borrowers in rural India into the formal financing eco-system, the microlender said in a release.

"Financial upliftment of the rural population, by making available to them easy access to formal credit continues to be our prime focus at Annapurna. DEG's investment would only help us further to meet our goal to provide easy credit access to the unserved rural population in the country," its Managing Director Gobinda Chandra Pattnaik said in the release.

Post the first wave of Covid-19, DEG would be the second capital investment raised by Annapurna, after attracting USD 30 million investment from Nuveen Global Impact Fund in March 2021.

The existing investors in Annapurna include Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd, Oman India Joint Investment Fund, Belgian Investment Organization, SIDBI Venture Capital, DCB Bank, Oikocredit, Women's World banking, Nuveen Global Impact Fund India S.à r.l, and Bamboo Capital Partners.

As of September 2021, the lender's gross loan portfolio stood at Rs 5,128 crore. It has operations in 336 districts across 19 states.

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