Spark Financial Holdings (“Spark”) acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the transaction.
Spark is pleased to announce a fund raise of ~USD 20 Mn in Sewa Grih Rin Limited (operating through its brand name ‘Sitara’) through a mix of primary and secondary investment in tranches. The round was led by Nordic Microfinance Initiative AS (“NMI”) and Women’s World Banking Asset Management (“WAM”) with existing investors also participating in the round.
This is the 7th successful transaction for Spark in the affordable housing finance space with a cumulative transaction value of ~USD 600 Mn. Spark continues its leadership in Financial services space having consummated over 50 transactions aggregating ~USD 3.3 Bn. In the last 18 months, Spark has successfully raised over USD 450 Mn for 7 clients in Financial services.
Commenting on the successful completion of the transaction:
Ms. Shruti Gonsalves, MD and CEO of Sitara said, “Sitara was setup with a mission to provide housing to low income women. We are proud to have impacted 70,000+ lives by helping their families access good quality housing. Our unique operating model emphasizes on assisting customers formalize their collateral and helps in their social upliftment. We are thankful to our existing investors and lending partners for their continued support in their journey. With this infusion, from NMI and WAM we will redouble our efforts to touch 200,000+ lives by FY25. We would like to thank the Spark team for giving us objective advice and handholding us throughout the entire process.”
Arthur Sletteberg, Managing Director, NMI said, “Our investment in Sitara will be NMI’s first investment into the affordable housing segment. We strongly believe that access to safe and affordable housing plays an important role in poverty reduction. NMI will support the Company in its efforts to reach the ambitious targets set. We aim to be an active and value adding investor and are looking forward to joining like-minded investors on the Sitara Board. We are impressed with what we have seen from the Company so far and optimistic for its future.”
Rajat Arora, Principal Investment Officer and Head of Asia, WAM said, “We value the impressive track record of Sitara in providing financial services to underserved individuals and the empowerment potential of its offering, especially for women. Sitara’s experienced leadership and high energy team are united under a shared vision to ensure superior customer delivery. We look forward to partnering with Sitara in the next stage of growth to be among the top affordable housing finance players in India.”
Sriram Patil, Director and Head – Financial Services, Spark Financial Holdings said, “Sitara has created a niche for itself by structuring customized products catering to the EWS segment. The strong asset quality demonstrated by Sitara during the last couple of years is a testament to the resilience of the housing finance space and the strong operating model built by the Sewa team. It has one of the best liability profiles in its peer set. This capital infusion enables Sitara to continue on their journey of building scale. We wish Shruti and the Sitara team the very best in their next phase of growth.”