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The Company plans to use the proceeds from the current round of fund raise to strengthen its technology platform and scale the business.
Altum Credo, a leading affordable housing finance company, has received fresh equity investment of INR 50 crores (US$ 6.7 mn) from Amicus Capital, a growth fund. Existing investors, Aavishkaar Capital and Mr. PS Pai & family, also participated with investment of INR 19 crores each (US$ 2.5 million) taking the round size to INR 88 crores (US$ 12 million).
Altum was founded in 2014 by Vikrant Bhagwat along with Ganesh Rao and Ashish Tewari and is today one of the fastest growing affordable housing finance companies in India. It has a network of 30 branches spread across the states of Mahrashtra, Telengana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Andha Pradesh. Being an affordable housing finance company it focuses on the economically weaker and low-income group categories which has traditionally faced challenges in accessing credit from formal channels.
The Company plans to use the proceeds from the current round of fund raise to strengthen its technology platform and scale the business. The Company aims to enhance usage of technology across various aspects of operations including origination, assessment and monitoring as it evolves into a digitally powered housing finance company. Moreover, the fundraise shall enable the Company to achieve its growth targets, remain well-capitalized in the near-term.
Vikrant Bhagwat, MD & CEO, Altum Credo said, “This funding round gives us a clear visibility to expand our operations in the 6 states where we are currently present and enhance our technology platforms to provide home loans to the low-income population segment aspiring to be first-time home buyers. This also allows us to enhance and diversify our borrowing mix, build leverage which will facilitate our next phase of growth.”
Commenting on the investment, Mahesh Parasuraman, Co-Founder and Partner, Amicus Capital said, “Altum has all the right building blocks in place – strong systems, well-entrenched processes, and a management team that has extensive experience in scaling financial services businesses. The Company is well positioned to capitalise on the secular decadal growth opportunity in the Indian housing finance market by using technology to reduce friction and allow them to grow into a segment leader. We are excited to partner with Altum and are committed to supporting the Company in this phase of hyper growth.”
Sushma Kaushik, Partner, Aavishkaar Capital said, “The Altum team has been able to demonstrate resilience despite difficult market conditions. They have best in class portfolio quality and are well poised for growth stemming from the demand for first homes in the affordable segment. We at Aavishkaar are excited to back the Altum team in this journey.”
Source: Business World