Tag: U GRO Capital

U GRO Capital launches 'Pratham', a 1,000 Cr MSME Co-lending Program in partnership with Bank of Baroda

U GRO Capital, a BSE-listed, technology-enabled small business NBFC, today announced the launch of a co-lending partnership for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) with Bank of Baroda, one of the largest banks in India. Termed as ‘Pratham’, the loan disbursements have commenced on the occasion of Bank of Baroda’s 114th Foundation Day. The program has been launched under Reserve Bank of India’s revised co-lending guidelines.

‘Pratham’, a 1000 crore co-lending program will allow the MSMEs to avail customized lending solutions at a competitive rate of interest with a significant reduction in turn-around time. The loan amount ranges from 50 lakh to 2.5 crore to be offered at an interest rate starting from 8% with a maximum tenure of 120 months.

Speaking on this partnership, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, U GRO Capital said, “It gives us immense pleasure to launch one of our most significant programs ‘Pratham’ and sign the co-lending agreement with Bank of Baroda under RBI’s revised guidelines. It is a reiteration of the value and trust that the bank places on our ability to leverage sectoral expertise and technology to solve the unsolved credit need of the MSMEs. We look forward to nurturing this essential relationship in our bid to support more MSMEs in the remotest locations, to help them revive and grow.”

Shri Vikramaditya Singh Khichi, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda said, “We are glad to have joined hands with U GRO Capital by way of this co-lending program, which resonates with our intent to extend support to more MSMEs.  We believe that forging such partnerships is the way forward and collaborative efforts leveraging individual entities’ expertise are of utmost importance to take co-lending to MSME segment to the next level. This is a significant advancement in the same direction.”

‘Pratham’ program requires minimum documentation while providing financing to MSMEs. U GRO Capital’s proprietary developed platform GRO-Xstream, allows faster turnaround time, with an in-principle approval issued within 60 minutes. A wide range of MSMEs including the recently added Wholesale & Retail Traders under Priority Sector can avail credit via this program. The program is accessible to MSMEs across 200+ channel touch points around nine locations, i.e. Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

About U GRO Capital U GRO Capital limited is a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform. The Company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.

U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need. U GRO Capital believes that the problem of small businesses can be solved by building deep expertise around core sectors of SMEs in India coupled with a data centric, technology-enabled approach.

The Company has raised ~INR 920 crore of capital from a diversified set of private equity funds like institutional investors and well-known family offices.

The Company strives to build a strong SME financing platform based on sectoral understanding supplemented by a fully integrated technology and analytics platform.

About Bank of Baroda

Bank of Baroda (“The Bank”) established on 20th July 1908 is a State-owned banking and financial services organisation, headquartered in Vadodara (earlier known as Baroda) in Gujarat, India. Bank of Baroda is India’s leading public sector bank with a strong domestic presence supported by self- service channels. The Bank’s distribution network includes 8,300+ branches, 11,600+ ATMs, Cash Recyclers supported by self-service channels and over 23,000 Business Correspondents. The Bank has a significant international presence with a network of 96 branches/offices of subsidiaries, spanning 19 countries. The Bank has wholly owned subsidiaries including BOB Financial Solutions Limited (erstwhile BOB Cards Ltd.), BOB Capital Markets and Baroda Asset Management India Ltd. Bank of Baroda also has joint ventures for life insurance viz. IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Limited and India Infradebt Ltd., engaged in infrastructure financing. The Bank owns 98.57% in The Nainital Bank. The Bank has also sponsored three Regional Rural Banks namely Baroda Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank, Baroda Rajasthan Gramin Bank and Baroda Gujarat Gramin Bank.

U GRO Capital performs strongly in the pandemic ridden FY21; AUM grows by more than 50% and cumulative disbursement crosses 2,500 Crores

  • AUM stood at 1,317 Cr and the company has declared profit before tax of 12 Cr in FY21 compared to ₹3 Cr in FY20
  • Added 22 new lenders during FY21 taking the total lender base to 29
  • Entered into co-lending partnership with Bank of Baroda
  • Expanded its branch network by operationalizing 25 Gro Micro branches during the year; has total network of 34 branches

U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, sector focused small business lending fintech platform, announced its financial results for Q4 FY21 and full year FY2021 ended March 31, 2021. Despite the adverse economic and business conditions brought about by COVID-19, U GRO Capital has performed strongly in each quarter of FY21.

The company posted an annual profit after tax of 28.7 Cr compared to 19.5 Cr in FY20. The total AUM of the company for FY2021 grew by 53% to 1,317 Cr as on March 2021 compared to 861 Cr in March 2020.

The key highlights for Q4 FY21:
Loan Portfolio:
  • The Company’s AUM as of the end of March 31, 2021 stood at 1,317 Cr 
  • The Company’s monthly disbursal run rate exceeded pre-COVID levels, with Mar-21 disbursals at a record 196 Cr
  • The loan book is 73% secured and the largest sectoral concentration is light engineering (24%) and the largest geographical concentration is Delhi NCR (20%)
  • Portfolio GNPA and NNPA stand at 2.72% and 1.75% respectively
Liability and Liquidity Position:
  • The Company is attractively positioned on its liability side with a base of 29 active lenders including public banks, private banks and other financial institutions
  • The Company has increased the number of lenders on book by 7 during the quarter
  • The Company’s overall debt book rose to 782 Cr in Q4, with overall debt equity ratio still at 0.80x indicating a long runway for growth
  • The Company maintains a strong liquidity profile with nearly 300 Cr of cash and equivalents
  • The Company maintains a CRAR of 65%, indicating a healthy capitalisation
Financial Performance:
  • The Company has taken a conservative approach to provisioning for loan loss, with a total provision of ₹ 25.62 Cr well above the minimum prescribed by RBI
  • The Company’s total income increased to ₹ 153 Cr in FY21, as compared to ₹105 Cr in FY20 an increase of 46% over the last year.
  • Net Interest Income (NII) for the year FY21 stood at ₹102.8 Cr in FY21 compared to ₹65.2 Cr in FY20. ~58% increase on Y-o-Y basis
  • The net worth of the Company stands at ₹ 952.4 Cr as on March 31, 2021
Operational Parameters:
  • The Company signed its first co-lending partnership under the revised framework with Bank of Baroda in June 2021. This shall open up doors to scale its line of secured business loans at below 10% rate to prime MSME customers
  • Company fully operationalized all its 25 MICRO Branches during Q4FY21
  • On the Branch Channel, the company continues to increase its base of GRO Partner network to 708 in the quarter ended March 31, 2021 from 355 a year ago. Its products continue to see a strong traction among the MSME borrowers.
  • In the ecosystem channel, the company increased its anchor base on Supply Chain Finance to 34 with addition of 19 new anchors during FY2021 and it continues to see a good growth in its Machinery Loan portfolio on account of increase in geographical footprint and presence of 150 pre-approved anchors
  • In the Partnership & Alliances channel, the company continued to operationalise more co-lending partnerships. This has led to a rapid rise of AUM in the co-lending channel in the second half of FY2021
Technological Innovation:
  • The company achieved end-to-end digitization of its Supply Chain Financing channel. With the focus to reach out to suppliers, vendors and dealers across PAN India, UGRO developed an inhouse Gro 2.0 application. The Gro 2.0 app shall enable digital onboarding by doing KYC, fetching GSTIN details, bank and financial statements on a real time basis.
  • The company is also taking active measures to standardize its operations to achieve seamless operations by transitioning towards an API driven process.

The Company is, at this juncture, focused on achieving robust growth while protecting its balance sheet and maintaining its strong liquidity position. Given its healthy capital adequacy, low gross NPA and net NPA, diversified portfolio mix, granular geographical distribution and strong risk metrics, the Company is confident in achieving its growth goals while maintaining its conservative approach.

Commenting on the results, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of U GRO Capital stated, “FY2021 has been a challenging yet an exciting year for us. During the year, we registered a 53% growth in our loan book. The year also saw a launch of our key products – Sanjeevani & Saathi. We have also made an operational and strategic pivot by introducing our direct distribution product line to serve micro-enterprises. We also saw significant traction in its liability book with addition of 22 new lenders during the year. We continue to embrace technology and invest in analytics to achieve superior underwriting. These developments favourably positions U GRO to achieve its 5-year target of capturing 1% of the MSME lending market. Propagating financial inclusion is our primary goal, and I am delighted with the impact that we are making by serving the nation’s microenterprises.”

 

U GRO Capital appoints Rishabh Garg as Chief Technology Officer

U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, sector focused small business lending fintech platform, today announced the appointment of Rishabh Garg as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, Rishabh will lead and drive all technology-based projects, strategy, and innovations for U GRO Capital, as the company ramps up its partnership-based lending products offered under the co-lending model, creates seamless cash-flow based invoice discounting journeys for SMEs for on-tap credit access and ramps up its reach to open more branches during FY 2022.

Rishabh is an IIM Lucknow and IIT Roorkee alumnus. Prior to joining U GRO Capital, he served as Co-Founder and CTO of an insurtech startup Gramcover. At GramCover, he built a technology enabled rural insurance business at scale. In his career spanning over 17 years, Rishabh has built an extensive experience in all facets of software development life cycle and building scalable products across Insurance, Lending, Payments, Ecommerce and Telecom domains. Rishabh has also worked with organisations like Biz2Credit Inc, Agnity Technologies, Sap Labs India and Infosys Technologies.

Speaking on the appointment, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of U GRO Capital stated, “At a time when Banks and NBFCs are transitioning as FinTechs and FinTechs are transitioning as NBFCs, we aspire to build a leadership team which can transcend between traditional balance sheet led businesses through highly agile proprietary technology platforms. We are delighted to onboard Rishabh as our Chief Technology Officer. He will play a pivotal role in re-defining U GRO Capital’s technology vision and product roadmap which will be a key pillar of the organization’s expansion journey in the coming year. We wish him all the very best and hope for a long and fruitful association with U GRO Capital.”

On his appointment, Rishabh Garg said, “I am excited to be a part of the motivated U GRO Capital team which has set-out on its aspirational growth journey. For a fintech like U GRO Capital, technology is one of the crucial pillars, hence, it offers me a tremendous platform to utilize my domain capabilities and I look forward to a compelling collaboration.”

U GRO Capital, with its sharp focus on technology led innovations finds itself amid a slew of industry firsts. It is one of the first few SME lending fintechs that are listed as a 1st wave lender on the GoI’s OCEN powered GeM-Sahay Invoice Discounting Platform. The Company also recently expanded its geographical presence by opening 25 Tier II & III town branches across 5 states by venturing into the microenterprise lending segment under the GRO Micro distribution channel and intends to scale-up to 100 GRO Micro branches this financial year.

About U GRO Capital Ltd.:

U GRO Capital limited is a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform. The Company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.

U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need. U GRO Capital believes that the problem of small businesses can be solved by building deep expertise around core sectors of SMEs in India coupled with a data centric, technology-enabled approach.

The Company has raised ~INR 920 crore of capital from a diversified set of private equity funds like institutional investors and well-known family offices. The Company strives to build a strong SME financing platform based on sectoral understanding supplemented by a fully integrated technology and analytics platform.

U GRO Capital partners with SBM Bank India to launch ‘GRO Smart Business’ credit card for MSMEs

  • Designed for MSME customers, ‘GRO Smart Business’ Credit Card patrons will get #smartbanking benefits – Receive additional credit facility plus gain the security of a Fixed Deposit at attractive interest rates from SBM Bank India
  • GRO Smart Business cards are issued through a convenient, instant and paperless process

U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, sector focused small business lending fintech platform, today announced its partnership with SBM Bank India towards the launch of ‘GRO Smart Business’ credit card, powered by RuPay, along with EnKash. These are a range of secured credit cards specially designed for underbanked micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These can be availed by the U GRO Capital borrowers against a fixed deposit with SBM Bank India.

The credit card offers a gateway to #SmartBanking features to empower MSME entrepreneurs solve multiple financial challenges. These include meeting immediate expenses like purchases of equipment and supplies, manage vendor payments, make business utility bill payments, as well as managing reimbursements for travel and entertainment expenses of employees. Further with the Fixed Deposit facility, MSME borrowers would be able to build a long-term wealth creating asset.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman & Managing Director, U GRO Capital stated, “We are elated to collaborate with SBM Bank India and launch this distinctive arrangement powered by the RuPay Network. The ‘GRO Smart Business’ Credit Card will allow our MSME customers to manage their urgent credit requirements and cash-flows effectively. MSMEs face a frequent need of urgent credit, catering to which becomes a challenge causing drastic cash flow disruptions. This arrangement will enable the businesses to tackle these situations effectively. We have been constantly exploring impactful solutions to support the revival and growth of the nation’s MSMEs. We believe this collaboration to be a significant initiative in the right direction.” 

The pandemic induced dynamic circumstances have led to a realization of the need to innovate and arrive at holistic solutions to the MSME credit issues. Various businesses have been affected due to unavailability of requisite funds during urgent requirements. Needless to say, fintechs and NBFCs with their nimble nature are sufficiently equipped with operational and technological capabilities to bridge the credit gap.

Speaking on the initiative, Neeraj Sinha, Head – Consumer & Retail Banking, SBM Bank India, said, “At SBM Bank India, we are committed to use the power of banking, technology and collaboration to create uniquely smart solutions. The launch of ‘GRO Smart Business’ credit card is in line with the same strategy. We are proud to partner U GRO Capital for the new product.”

The MSMEs eligible for the business loans from U GRO Capital would be extended incremental funds to open a Fixed Deposit account with SBM Bank and the credit card shall be offered against the security of a Fixed Deposit maintained by the applicant in his name. The terms and conditions of this credit facility shall be as per the existing policies of U GRO Capital. 

Features of the Credit card:
  • Card type: Corporate owned Individual liability
  • Limit: 90% of FD amount
  • Joining & Annual Fees: Zero
  • Finance Charges: 1.99% (monthly)
  • Interest free period/Cash advance interest free period:  Max. 50 days
  • Cash Advance limit: 30%
  • The card shall have a ‘Tap-To-Pay’ functionality for contactless payments and can be used to withdraw cash from the ATMs upto a certain limit of the total credit limit at a charge
Features of the Fixed Deposit:
  • Amount: Rs. 10,000 – Rs. 10 lakhs
  • Tenure: 1-5 years
  • Rate of Interest: 7.5% (fixed)
  • Required Documentation: AADHAR based OKYC & e-PAN verification (No hard documents required)
  • Time required to open the Fixed Deposit: 3 hrs       

Note: The above features are subject to change as per SBM Bank policies.

About U GRO Capital Ltd.:

U GRO Capital limited is a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform. The Company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.

U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need. U GRO Capital believes that the problem of small businesses can be solved by building deep expertise around core sectors of SMEs in India coupled with a data centric, technology-enabled approach.

The Company has raised ~INR 920 crore of capital from a diversified set of private equity funds like institutional investors and well-known family offices.

The Company strives to build a strong SME financing platform based on sectoral understanding supplemented by a fully integrated technology and analytics platform.

About SBM Bank (India) Ltd

SBM Bank (India) Limited “SBM Bank India” is the first bank to receive universal banking license from the Reserve Bank of India to set up and operate as a Scheduled Commercial Bank under Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS) mode offering banking services in India. SBM Bank India has a network of 8 branches located in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ramachandrapuram, Ahmedabad and Palghar. SBM Bank India has profound domain expertise and is led by a core team comprising of industry veterans having over a century of cumulative experience in banking and financial services. The Bank offers a diverse suite of universal products and services to its customers which include Deposits, Advances, NRI Services, Treasury Products and Trade Finance Services. SBM Bank India stands poised to embark on a new journey, innovating in every sphere of its business, expanding its service proposition to include an extensive suite of retail and wholesale banking products and capital markets.

For further information, visit www.sbmbank.co.in

U GRO Capital appoints Pia Shome as Chief People Officer

Mumbai, India – 25th March 2021: U GRO Capital, a BSE-listed, sector-focused small business lending fintech platform, today announced the appointment of Pia Shome as Chief People Officer. In this role, she will be in charge of In her role, Pia instrumental in building a quality talent pool across the nation as we ramp up our geographical reach and expand our physical presence to 100 GRO Micro Branches in the coming year. She will also augment the culture of high performance and meritocracy and will also setup up clear career progression programs for U GRO Capital employees.

Pia is an INSEAD alumnus and has over 16 years of experience in the BFSI sector. Prior to joining U GRO Capital, Pia was Head – Human Resources at SMEcorner. She brings extensive experience, having worked in organisations like IDFC First Bank, RBL Bank, DBS Bank, Barclays Bank and TCS eServe International. She has played crucial roles in not only scaling up start-ups but also managing mergers of multiple financial institutions. Pia has served in leadership positions across various verticals like Business Partnering, Recruitment, Rewards and Recognition, Campus Relations, Talent Management and Learning & Development.

Announcing the appointment, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of U GRO Capital stated, “It gives us immense joy to welcome Pia Shome as Chief People Officer. The realization of U GRO Capital’s aspiration to solve the unsolved credit gap of MSMEs depends heavily on the existence of a coherent, competent, passionate, and agile leadership team. We are confident that Pia’s addition to the team will stimulate a culture of meritocracy and ownership among our employees as we chart out their career progression with us.  We look forward to Pia’s contribution to help build scale as we spread across the country to help MSMEs. I wish her all the very best and a long and illustrious stint with U GRO Capital.”

On her appointment, Pia Shome said, “I am thrilled to be a part of the U GRO Capital team, which has a distinguished structure built upon the founding pillars of knowledge and technology. I firmly believe that people as well as technology shall be our biggest differentiators. In our journey ahead, our focus will be to build strong people capabilities and a culture driven by meritocracy. I am heartened by U GRO Capital’s aspirations of ongoing nationwide expansion and working towards a larger cause of solving the unsolved credit gap of MSMEs. I look forward to joining the team on this enthralling journey.”

About U GRO Capital Ltd.:

U GRO Capital limited is a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform. The Company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.

U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need. U GRO Capital believes that the problem of small businesses can be solved by building deep expertise around core sectors of SMEs in India coupled with a data centric, technology-enabled approach.

The Company has raised ~INR 920 crore of capital from a diversified set of private equity funds like institutional investors and well-known family offices.

The Company strives to build a strong SME financing platform based on sectoral understanding supplemented by a fully integrated technology and analytics platform.

U GRO Capital expands its network in Gujarat with 5 new branches; aims to support 10,000 small businesses by March 2022

18th March, 2021

  • Adds branches in Baroda, Himatnagar, Mehsana, Nadiad and Odhav
  • Intends to scale up its GRO Micro branch network to 100 across India and aims to reach out to 50,000 small businesses, pan India, by March 2022

U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, sector focused small business lending fintech platform, today announced the expansion of its network by adding five new branches in Gujarat state.  ‘GRO Micro’, the distribution channel will offer loans to the unorganized Micro Businesses based in Baroda, Himatnagar, Mehsana, Nadiad, Odhav and near-by locations.

The Company’s internal study highlights that Gujarat state offers immense opportunity for expansion especially in the micro lending segment. Of the overall Gujarat target segment potential, the five identified markets will address approximately 34% of the potential, allowing the company to effectively enhance its reach. There are over 1 million micro borrowers in and around the identified markets. A significant portion of these micro-borrowers face a lack of formal capital infusion due to insufficient databases and unavailability of requisite documents. The company aims to bridge this credit gap for about 10,000 of these small businesses by FY’22 in the state. In Gujarat, U GRO Capital will cater to borrowers such as kirana stores, medical shops, hair salons etc. among other identified target businesses.

Apart from Gujarat, U GRO Capital has expanded its branch presence in four states of Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, with a total of 20 new branches. With this geographical expansion under the flagship of ‘GRO Micro’, the company aims to offer small ticket loans – secured against property, as well as unsecured loans, to micro businesses. This will help the MSMEs in meeting their working capital needs to fix broken cash flows and to assist them in the operational sustenance and stability in the post pandemic era. It aims to reach out to 50,000 small businesses across the country by FY’22, while expanding its branch network to 100 locations.

The Company provides its credit offerings to MSMEs in 8 sectors and 38 sub-sectors, shortlisted basis an 18-month process involving extensive study of macro and micro economic parameters carried out in conjunction with market experts like CRISIL. It has a robust and highly capable technology enabled underwriting model, for which it has also filed a patent. Combining it with a deep digital architecture and technological capabilities it offers credit in a quick and convenient manner.

Commenting on the expansion, Mr. Sathiayan Jaichandran, Chief Business Officer, U GRO Capital said, “By expanding our branch network and the reach of GRO Micro in Gujarat, we have taken a significant step towards realization of our philosophy of solving the unsolved credit gap of the unserved and underserved small businesses. Under this initiative, we aim to provide our customized credit offerings to over 10,000 small businesses in the state. We intend to carry our experience from the 5 identified states and expand our branch network by a further 75 branches by the end of FY ’22. We are confident that this initiative will support the Government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat’ program.” 

With GRO Micro, U GRO Capital now has an extensive network of 34 branches and presence in 8 states across India.

Key highlights of loans to be offered via GRO Micro:
  • Range of amount to be lent: 1L – 25L (Secured) and 50K – 5L (Unsecured)
  • Loan duration: 12 – 36 months (Unsecured) & 1 – 9 years (Secured)
  • Timeline for disbursal: 3-4 days (Unsecured); 7-8 days (Secured)
Process to avail the loan: GRO Micro
  • Small business owner applies for a Business Loan – assisted by a GRO Micro Sales Executive on its proprietary GRO+ App
  • Provides conventional data like GST, ITR, Bank Statements/ Pass-book images as well as alternate data like trade bills (Pucca/ Kaccha), electricity bills etc.
  • Receives in-principle approval post credit-appraisal within a day of loan application
  • Loan Agreement is signed, and loan is disbursed in the customer’s bank account
About U GRO Capital Ltd.:

U GRO Capital limited is a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform. The Company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.

U GRO Capital’s mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need. U GRO Capital believes that the problem of small businesses can be solved by building deep expertise around core sectors of SMEs in India coupled with a data centric, technology-enabled approach.

The Company has raised ~INR 920 crore of capital from a diversified set of private equity funds like institutional investors and well-known family offices. The Company strives to build a strong SME financing platform based on sectoral understanding supplemented by a fully integrated technology and analytics platform.

U GRO Capital crosses Rs. 2000 crore milestone on loan disbursals; raises Rs. 178 crores of debt from high profile lenders

U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform, announced its Q3 FY21 financial results and posted a PAT of INR 6.3 crores. This has been achieved while maintaining a consistently conservative approach to provisioning, with INR 5.9 crores of provisioning expenses in Q3. Despite the adverse economic and business conditions brought about by COVID-19, U GRO Capital has declared profits in each quarter of FY21.

The key highlights for Q3 FY21:
Loan Portfolio
  • The Company’s disbursals to date reached INR 2,065 crores at the end of Q3 FY21 despite the on-going COVID-19 related disruptions to business activity, with disbursals in the last quarter at INR 368 Crores
  • The Company’s monthly disbursal run rate has exceeded pre-COVID levels, with December 2020 disbursals at a record INR 140 crores
  • The Company’s AUM as of the end of December 31, 2020 stood at INR 1,127 crores across 8,429 live loans. The loan book is 70% secured, the largest sectoral concentration is light engineering (24%) and the largest geographical concentration is Delhi NCR (18%)
  • Portfolio Proforma GNPA (90+ DPD) and NNPA stand at 2.3% and 1.4% respectively
Liability and Liquidity Position
  • The Company has raised an incremental INR 178 crores of liability in Q3, for a total of INR 756 crores of sanctioned liability at an on-book blended rate of 10.1%
  • The Company has 22 active lenders including PSU banks, Private sector banks and other financial Institutions on its borrowing book
  • The Company has increased the number of lenders on book by 8, including high profile names such as SBI, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank
  • The Company maintains a strong liquidity profile with nearly INR 300 crores of cash and equivalents, and a further INR 194 crores of undrawn debt sanctions
  • The Company maintains a CRAR of 77.9%, well above industry standards
Financial Performance
  • The Company has taken a conservative approach to provisioning for loan loss, with a total provision of INR 21.4 crores
  • The Company’s total income increased to INR 39.1 crores in Q3 FY21, as compared to INR 28.9 crores in Q3 FY20
  • The Company declared a Q3 FY21 PAT of INR 6.3 crores, as compared to INR 6.9 crores in Q3 FY20
  • The net worth of the Company stands at INR 950.5 crores as on December 31, 2020
Operational Parameters
  • The GRO Partner network now stands at 603 partners, a 16.4% increase on Q2FY21
  • The Company has onboarded 28 ecosystem partners and 35 corporate partners
  • The Company is introducing sub 15 lac loan, a line of smaller ticket, higher yield and shorter tenor secured products for microenterprises
Technological Innovation
  • The Company became the first lender to complete UAT testing on the Government’s GeM Sahay platform, which provides access to over 2.4 lakh sole proprietorships that supply a cumulative value of INR 18,935Cr. Platform expected to go live in February 2021 as per Government of India plans
  • Digital Supply Chain Financing platform GRO-Chain to launch in February 2021

Commenting on the results, Mr. Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of U GRO Capital stated, “This has been an exciting quarter for us at U GRO Capital, as we have been making a steady progress towards achieving our goal of solving India’s $300B MSME credit gap. We have also made an operational and strategic pivot by introducing our direct distribution product line to serve microenterprises. Propagating financial inclusion is our primary goal, and I am delighted with the successful launch and certainly hope that we can serve the nation’s microenterprises the financing they deserve.

That we have achieved this growth in a time of such market turmoil and maintained profitability for each quarter of FY21 is truly remarkable, and full credit must go to the team for helping bring this vision to life so effectively. With the COVID-19 crisis hopefully coming to a close, the nation’s MSMEs will be hungry to make up for lost time – and they can count on U GRO to stand alongside them.”

About U GRO Capital Ltd.:

U GRO Capital limited is a BSE listed, small business lending fintech platform. The Company is focused on addressing capital needs of small businesses operating in select eight sectors by providing customized loan solutions.

U GRO mission is ‘Solve the Unsolved’ – Small Business Credit Need. U GRO believes that the problem of small businesses can be solved by building deep expertise around core sectors of SMEs in India coupled with a data centric, technology-enabled approach.

The Company has raised ~INR 920 crore of capital from a diversified set of private equity funds like institutional investors and well-known family offices.

U GRO capital has shortlisted the 8 sectors basis an 18-month process involving extensive study of macro and micro economic parameters carried out in conjunction with market experts like CRISIL. The eight sectors shortlisted are Healthcare, Education, Chemicals, Food Processing / FMCG, Hospitality, Electrical Equipment and Components, Auto Components, Light Engineering. The Company additionally lends to microenterprises, which behave as a monolith and act a pseudo ninth sector. The Company strives to build a strong SME financing platform based on sectoral understanding supplemented by a fully integrated technology and analytics platform.

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