Northern Arc India Impact Fund raises INR 650 M from BIO
- NAIIF has raised and deployed INR 7 billion, including greenshoe option. Key global impact investors like Blue Earth Capital, Anthos Fund & Asset Management and Calvert Impact Capital had participated in the first close
- The investment from BIO strengthens Northern Arc’s ESG focus, is aligned with BIO's mission to strengthen the private sector in developing and emerging countries and bolsters its contribution to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Through NAIIF, 3.5 million women availed funding in their bank accounts; 8.9 million residents of rural and semi-urban areas were extended funding, and 1 million borrowers were newly introduced into the financing system
Northern Arc Investments Managers (NAIM), one of the leading private debt fund managers from India, announced that BIO has invested INR 650 M in Northern Arc Impact India Fund (NAIIF), NAIM’s eighth fund. The investment will be used to support and address the funding gaps for impact enterprises (IE) through easy, reliable, and sustainable access to finance.
NAIIF, a SEBI-registered category II AIF (Alternative Investment Fund) has a total corpus of INR 7 billion, raised from marquee investors, including domestic and international development financial institutions, global impact firms, domestic financial institutions, banks, corporate treasuries, and domestic and global family offices. Key investors that participated in the first close included Blue Earth Capital – a leading global impact investment firm, Anthos Fund & Asset Management – a comprehensive values-based asset management & investment advisory services firm from the Netherlands; and Calvert Impact Capital – an institutional impact investor based in the United States. The overwhelming response to the fund led to the exercise of the green-shoe option of an additional INR 3.5 billion.
Through the investment, the Fund strives to not only provide financing for income generating purposes but also to enrich lives through opportunities for homeownership & improvement, access to sanitation and vehicle ownership, amongst many others
Ravi Vukkadala, CEO Northern Arc Investments
NAIIF has already deployed 100% of its commitments across 30 investments in impact-focused themes such as - financial inclusion, agritech, & climate tech. Through NAIIF, 3.5 million women availed funding in their bank accounts; 8.9 million residents of rural and semi-urban areas were extended funding, and 1 million borrowers were newly introduced into the financing system. About 5.2 million loans were extended from the NAIIF to finance farm productivity through loans for the purchase of fertilizer/ manure/seeds/tractor or equipment/livestock & poultry.
Strengthening the private sector through impact investing promotes fair work practices, gender equality, and combats poverty and climate change, which are the main obstacles to human progress.
Carole Maman, CIO BIO
Since its inception in 2009, the Northern Arc Group has enabled financing for Originator Partners who have impacted over 54 million lives across India, of which more than 42 million were women. The debt lender has raised close to about Rs 1 trillion in financing for customers.
About
Northern Arc Investments is a leading impact-focused asset manager in private credit with a strong track record since 2014 and has an aggregate investor commitment of over half a billion dollars. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northern Arc Capital Limited, a leading financial inclusion-focused NBFC in India with over USD 13.5 billion in debt financing enabled since 2008. Northern Arc Investments’ funds target several key impact-focused sectors including Microfinance, Small Business Loan Finance, Vehicle Finance, Corporate Finance, Agri Finance, and Affordable Housing Finance and the investor base comprises a high pedigree mix of domestic institutional investors, private wealth clients, and international impact investors. The firm got listed in Impact Asset 50 Fund Managers List for the second year in a row, making it the only debt fund from India to receive this honour. The firm is currently fundraising for its tenth fund.
Northern Arc India Impact Fund
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Equity € 7,890,744.00 (2022)Asia, India
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