Business briefs

Aye Finance, which provides unsecured small-ticket business loans to micro enterprises, on Thursday said it has received a grant of 2,00,000 pounds (Rs 2.05 crore) from TRANSFORM, a joint initiative led by Unilever, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and EY, to address the challenges of working capital for Kirana owners. Last month, Aye launched its new on-tap product SwitchPe to provide credit lines to retailers for procurement of supplies. Through this new grant, the MSME lender will be leveraging the extensive expertise of Unilever (one of TRANSFORM's founding organisations) in the FMCG sector to make SwtichPe available to a larger number of grocery store owners, including women, and bring them into the fold of organised lending, it said.

''With this collaboration with TRANSFORM, we will build momentum for our newly launched BNPL product, SwitchPe and solve the funding challenges in the FMCG supply chain,'' Sanjay Sharma, Founder and Managing Director of Aye Finance, said.

Aye has provided lines of credit to over 6 lakh micro enterprises, including 50,000 kirana shops, through its customised lending products. *** Indel Money plans to roll out 105 branches in FY24 * Non-bank lender Indel Money on Thursday said it will roll out 106 branches across the country in the current financial year as part of its pan-India expansion plan.

Indel Money, the flagship company of Indel Corporation, is strengthening its presence in western and central India as a part of its national expansion plan, the lender said in a release.

The company, which currently operates through its more than 250 branches in 8 states -- Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Puducherry and Kerala -- is aggressively pursuing a pan-India roadmap by opening 105 branches in FY24. This includes 45 branches in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it said.

''With this phase of expansion, we are expecting a robust growth in our customer base and Assets Under Management (AUM). As a part of our ambitious long-term growth strategy, we are looking at both organic and inorganic routes to expand our operational footprints across the country to emerge as a pan-India financial services company,'' Umesh Mohanan, ED & CEO of Indel Money, said.