MICROCAPITAL.ORG STORY: Lok Capital Invests US $1.5 M in Asirvad Microfinance Private Ltd of India
Summary
Venture fund Lok Capital LLC has closed a US $1.5 million investment deal with Indian Chennai-based Asirvad Microfinance Private Ltd, giving it a 24% stake in the company [1]. To date, Asirvad Microfinance has 65,121 members, up from 6,092 members a year and a half ago [5] and a portfolio outstanding of 20.9 Crores, worth US $4.35 million [4].With the recent investment from Lok Capital LLC, Asirvad\xb4s non-executive Chairman, Mr. Raja Vaidyanathan, projects total lending to reach US $15.6 million by March 2010. He announced that Asirvad\xb4s goal is to empower at least one million low income families by 2015 supporting their viable income generating activities[6] and that Lok\xb4s experience in the Indian MFI space will go a long way in guiding Asirvad to adopt best in class practices in all areas of management [1].Venky Natarajan, Managing Director of Delhi-based Lok Advisory Services, adds, We are very happy to have added Asirvad to our portfolio. In addition to national [Indian-based] MFIs like Spandana, Basix and Ujjivan whom we have invested in, Lok is committed to finding and supporting high performing regional MFIs and working with their management teams to take these social enterprises to new levels of professionalism and success [1]. Should this rate be achieved, Lok projects that a currently untapped market of several million of India\xb4s poor could have access to financial services [2].