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Bangalore MFI Grameen Koota Gets Rs 27.5 Cr Venture Funding

By TEAM VCC

  • 09 Dec 2009

Bangalore-based microfinance firm Grameen Koota has raised Rs 27.5 crore ($5.88 million) venture capital funding from Luxembourg's MicroVentures Investments, Italy's MicroVentures SPA, Belgium-based Incofin and existing investor Aavishkar Goodwell. Grameen Koota is part of Grameen Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, an MFI with 3 lakh borrowers spread across Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Grameen Koota is targeting to expand its reach to 20 lakh households across 7 Indian states including Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh by 2012. It's also looking to widen offerings to community services like education, health, sanitation, etc. Grameen Koota currently has 117 branches in Karnataka & Maharashtra with over 1200 employees & an outstanding loan portfolio of Rs 155 crore.

Incofin, a MFI focused fund manager, made its first investment in India earlier this year by picking up a stake in Asomi Finance Private Ltd. MicroVentures India provides debt finance to MFIs and has also recently started providing equity funding. Its investments in India include Chennai's Equitas Microfinance.

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Grameen Koota also plans to invest in technology development. "We are one of the first in the world to use MIFOS, a open-source centralized MIS system that effectively monitors our borrowers & portfolio. The investment we have received now will help us make more strategic investments into technology, which will give us  the strength to standardize our operations & bring down our back office costs” explains Suresh Krishna, Managing Director of Grameen Koota.

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