Startups
Aye Finance raises 40 crore from IFMR Capital
NEW DELHI: Gurugram-based Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) lender Aye Finance said that it has raised Rs 40 crore term loan from IFMR Capital.
These funds will be used by the MSME Lender for on-lending.
During the current financial year Aye Finance has raised Rs 250 crore in debt from India’s largest PSU Bank SBI; Mahindra & Mahindra, Hinduja Leyland Finance and leading global impact investment managers Blue Orchard, Triodos Investment Management and Symbiotics.
Aye Finance P Ltd has innovated a unique cluster based methodology that utilizes the deep insights of the operations of a business cluster to make good lending decisions despite the absence of business accounts, credit histories or banking track records. It makes effective use of various data science tools – psychometric profile tools, behaviour based statistical credit scores and constantly improving cluster insights, in arriving at the decision to lend to the micro and small scale enterprises. By using crowd CRM and teaching its borrowers to use non cash modes of repayment, Aye has been able to reduce the costs of origination and servicing of loans.
IFMR Capital aims to provide efficient and reliable access to capital markets for institutions like Aye Finance that cater to the underbanked. Last year IFMR Capital arranged, structured, and guaranteed a ‘Pooled Loan Issuance’ in which Aye Finance participated and for which Hinduja Leyland Finance was the investor. In addition they arranged a $12 million investment in Aye Finance by Geneva-based impact investor, BlueOrchard Finance and $7 million from Triodos Investment Management.
Commenting on the latest term facility to Aye Finance, Dr. Kshama Fernandes, CEO, IFMR said “Over the years of association with Aye finance, we have seen them develop a high quality sustainable business in the space they operate in. Millions of micro and small enterprises in India struggle to raise funding from formal sources. Aye Finance assesses the risks of these enterprises and offers a range of credit solutions which are affordable as well as suitable to their needs thus playing a very important role in the evolution of these businesses.”
Aye is equity funded by three reputed Venture Capital Funds – Accion International, SAIF Partners and LGT Impact Ventures. Aye opened its first branch in Delhi in the year 2014 and has been rapidly expanding every year and charting an exciting growth path in this under banked segment while maintaining a high benchmark for credit quality. In October last year Aye Finance announced that it plans to raise $25-40 million by March 2018 to fuel its expansion plans.
Aye’s leadership is rallied around the vision to become an admired financial institution with a leadership position in micro and small enterprise lending. Through the use of innovative data models and technology supported by an engaged team that focuses untiringly on customer delight, Aye is working to live up to its vision.
NEW DELHI: Viavi Solutions has announced that Mavenir, a leading provider of end-to-end cloud-native network software for mobile operators, is collaborating with VIAVI for lab validation of radio access solutions in the U.S. VIAVI’s lab test platform, in use by almost every base station manufacturer in the world, provides scalable test systems for validating network performance as experienced by end users, across multiple cells and different radio access technologies.
The year 2020 marked a significant inflection point for mobile networks around the globe. With 229 million subscribers as of December 2020, 5G became the fastest growing mobile technology in history. New MNOs were granted licenses to establish greenfield networks to take advantage of this demand. Established network equipment manufacturers were restricted from supplying infrastructure in markets around the globe. These trends have driven an expansion of the supply chain for mobile network solutions.
VIAVI tools are able to measure the complete performance of the network over multiple interfaces including O-RAN and RF through to the packet core. Capable of emulating one to many thousands of UEs, the platforms create a sophisticated and precise test environment, including comprehensive feature interactions, simulated RF and mobility, accurate replications of real-world user behavior profiles, together with mobility across the radio access network.
“Mavenir is proud to be a leading vendor to mobile operators around the globe, offering software-defined infrastructure that can adapt to evolving requirements for both brownfield and greenfield networks, large-scale to startup networks,” said Ramnik Kamo, EVP Quality, Systems and People, Mavenir.
“VIAVI has been a highly collaborative partner with our two companies’ engineering teams working together to prove a new technology against very tight customer timescales,” he added.
“As vendors across the industry develop open, cloud-native and disaggregated architectures, testing against user expectations of service quality will be critical to accelerate adoption at scale,” said Luiz Cesar Oliveira, Vice President, Americas, VIAVI.
“We are excited to help Mavenir optimize their advanced radio access solutions based on our unique experience supporting over 200 service providers and virtually every network equipment manufacturer worldwide,” Luiz added.
KOCHI: India got its largest startup ecosystem on Sunday when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated here a 1.8-lakh-square-feet facility housing incubation set-ups across a string of segments in modern technology.
The Integrated Startup Complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) includes the ultra modern facilities of Maker Village that promotes hardware startups, the BioNest that promotes medical technologies, BRINC which is the country’s first international accelerator for hardware startups; BRIC which aids developing solutions for cancer diagnosis and care, and a Centre of Excellence set up by industry majors such as UNITY.
Overall the Kerala Government is working for the state to have a total area of 2.3 crore sq ft of IT space (up from 1.3 crore sq ft last year). The opening of the new complex at the Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ) is a major step towards achieving the objective, Vijayan said in his speech at KINFRA Hi Tech Park, Kalamassery.
“We are also planning to give direct jobs to 2.5 lakh in IT,” he said, adding that the government was working to ensure that information technology fosters social development.
After the completion of three more projects, Kerala will have startup and incubation space of 5 lakh sq ft, which will be the largest of this type in the world.
No less than 30 applications for patent has gone from startups with the 13.5-acre TIZ, the CM noted, lauding it as a sign of the high-quality work in the zone.
Simultaneously, Kerala was sensing increasing optimism in boosting software export from the state.M Sivasankar, secretary, IT (Kerala), pointed out that the entire space at the TIZ facility has been sold out.
“This has never happened in our country, where it usually takes a couple of years for an incubator to get the whole area occupied,” he said. “The first three floors of the new complex have been furnished, while the rest of the floors have already got allotted to various startups.” “The campus has another incubator complex coming up and it will be opened early next year,” Sivasankar said.
Besides the Maker Villager with its 30-odd startups, the facility has nascent firms working in fields such as biotechnology, computer-aided design, augmented/virtual reality and advanced communication.
Kalamassery MLA Ebrahim Kunju, in his presidential address, said Kerala has been proving to be a superpower in south India in the field of IT and incubation. “We expect more help from the government in its related endeavours,” he added.
Ernakulam MP Prof K V Thomas launched BioNest, which is a startup the KSUM has established in association with Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology with financial aid from BIRAC, under the union government’s Department of Bio Tech.
It has 20 companies involved in deep research in biotechnology and allied fields.
The BRIC, which was inaugurated by Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja, will chiefly work in fighting cancer. The state has 50,000 additions to its cancer patients every year, the minister noted, adding that the BRIC will work in accordance with a Cancer Strategic Action Plan and funds totalling Rs 350 crore.
Officials pointed out that TIZ was set to become the country’s largest Work-Live-Play space exclusively dedicated to startups. The Maker Village, set up by the IIITM-K in association with KSUM and supported by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, houses 65 startups working in electronics hardware technologies.
Source: Press Trust of India
NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries on Saturday said it had acquired 5.56% equity stake in technology startup Vakt Holdings Ltd, UK (VHL), for $5 million (around Rs 35 crore).
VHL is a consortium of leading global energy majors, commodity traders and banks with a vision to digitise the global commodities trading industry, creating a secure, trusted ecosystem, powered by blockchain.
“The strategic investment accelerates Reliance’s digital journey, through active participation in an emerging and evolving, yet promising, block chain enabled technology solution for energy markets,” the Mukesh Ambani-led company said in a regulatory filing.
Source: Press Trust of India
