Veritas raises ~120 cr from Lok Capital, CDC Group and others

Veritas Finance, a Chennai-based financial services firm that lends to micro and small enterprises, raised ~120 crore in Series-B funding. This includes investment from Lok Capital and an ~65 crore investment from CDC Group, the UK’s Development Finance Institution.

Existing investors P Surendra Pai and Mrs Pai have also participated in this round.

The fresh round of funding will bolster product innovation, expansion to states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and deepen Veritas’ presence in existing states and union territories. Founded in 2015 by Arulmany, Veritas meets a spectrum of MSME credit needs; shortterm loans for working capital, medium-term loans for business expansion and long-term loans for asset creation.

From a standing start in late 2015, Veritas now has over 12,000 customers on board and the company aims to grow its loan book to ~1,000 crore by FY19. Veritas currently operates out of 60 branches and 97 micro centres in five states.

“Through this round of funding, besides expansion, we will also strengthen our technology play which will in turn help us achieve higher productivity and bring down the cost of servicing micro-businesses,” said Founder Arulmany.

“Our investment in Veritas underlines our commitment to back companies with a strong development impact philosophy and business models that support financial inclusion for India’s disadvantaged,” said Nikhil Balaraman, South Asia Director at CDC India Advisors.