U GRO Capital, a listed MSME lending fintech platform, today announced that Acuite Ratings and Research has upgraded its Long Term rating to A+ (stable) and Short Term rating to A1+.
The ratings upgrade reflects improvement in U GRO Capital’s business and financial risk profile on the back of strong equity support by institutional investors, experienced management team, growth in AUM, good asset quality and improved operating metrics.
The upgrade in rating takes into consideration sustained and calibrated growth in AUM with diversified (product and geography) asset mix and continued focus to expand across all channels viz. branch-led, ecosystem and partnership & alliances, demonstrated resource raising ability with granular liability franchise to cushion finance cost.
The rating also factors in the high capitalization levels and low gearing levels.
The company’s AUM has shown strong growth during FY2019-22YTD despite the challenging environment and the company is expected to maintain the growth momentum going further as the economy picks up. The company has been at the forefront in entering into co-lending partnerships with multiple public sector banks like State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, IDBI Bank, which will further improve liquidity and support the growth.
The ratings continue to take into account U GRO Capital’s stable senior management team having deep understanding of the industry and execution expertise of setting up large institutions. Acuite also draws comfort from the governance and experience of the promoter who have provided guidance and direction to the company over the last three years.
On the rating upgrade, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, said “It gives us immense pleasure to have received a rating upgrade from Acuite. Our efforts have been streamlined towards building a distinctive MSME financing institution, effective in bridging unsolved SME credit gap. Previous quarter has been particularly successful for us as we recorded the highest ever monthly disbursal figures. Further our business and operational growth are following an upward trajectory, despite the existence of pandemic circumstances. The rating upgrade is a reiteration of the same. Also, we have adopted a collaborative approach in our bid to reach out to more and more MSMEs by co-lending with large public sector banks and financial institutions. This demonstrates their trust in our operations and larger financial inclusion imperative. This only motivates us to continue our momentum in our bid to build the country’s leading lending as a service (LaaS) platform, thus providing immense value to all our stakeholders.”
U GRO Capital has been inching towards its growth targets. As of 31 December 2021, its AUM had risen to Rs. 2,589 crore growing 130% in the previous 12 months. Further it recorded the highest monthly disbursements at Rs. 414 crore in December 2021. It has been leveraging its sectoral focus to extend effective credit to MSME customers, while also adopting distinctive approaches like co-lending, having partnered with over 50 Lenders including larger public sector banks, NBFCs and fintechs. Its customer base recently crossed a mark of 16,500. Continuing the momentum, the company has set a vision 2025 of acquiring 1 % market share of the outstanding MSME credit, achieving an AUM of Rs. 20,000 crore and serving 1 million MSME customers
About U GRO Capital Ltd:
U GRO Capital limited is a listed (NSE, BSE), MSME lending fintech platform. U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need with its omnichannel distribution model combining physical and digital journey of the customer. The Company envisions to spearhead India’s transition of MSME lending market to the new age of on-tap financing. It uses the emerging Data Tripod of GST, Banking and Bureau coupled with its sectoral analysis to solve the problem of credit for small businesses.
U GRO Capital aspires to serve one million small businesses with an asset book of 1% of outstanding MSME credit of India as its first milestone.
Technology underpins every aspect of U GRO Capital’s lending process, from API integrations, sectoral and sub-sectoral statistical scorecards, state-of-the-art AI/ML credit underwriting engine combining bank, bureau and GST statement analyzers, automated policy approvals, and machine learning OCR technology. Company’s GRO Extreme platform empowers fintech and other institutional platforms to deepen their distribution reach through a plug and play API driven seamless integration with U GRO Capital. The company has developed full tech stack to fully automate the complete life cycle of a loan right from origination to collection during the entire customer journey.
The Company has raised ~₹ 2500 crore of equity & debt capital from marquee Private Equity Investors, Family Offices, Banks and other Financial Institution over last 3 years.