Kashmir Finance Private Limited, a specialised NBFC which lends to students for vocational courses, has raised a small undisclosed amount of funding from group of high net-worth investors, according to a press release.
Started in 2012, Kashmir Finance operates under the brand name of 'KSFi'- Knowledge and Skill Financing solution. KSFi provides average loan of Rs 80,000 for a period of 24-36 months.
“There is a dearth of skilled labour in India. As per various studies, we require skilled labour force of more than 12 million people every year and the expected skill financing market is of $2 billion per annum. Hence it's important to tap this huge opportunity,” Sharat Kurup, founder and principal of KSFi, said.
At present, it has operations in seven key locations namely Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ludhiana, Raipur, Pune and Jammu.
An email sent seeking further details on the transaction did not elicit any response by the time of filing this article.
DCB Bank Limited (Formerly Development Credit Bank Ltd.) advised Kashmir Finance for the fundraising.
“The best part about KSFi is that it follows a light asset business model and avoid brick and mortar structure,” Atal Agarwal,
head - corporate &investment banking of DCB Bank, said in the statement.
He added that DCB is also planning to help KSFi raise another round of funding.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)