JANALAKSHMI RAISES UP TO ₹700 CRORE
MUMBAI: Janalakshmi Financial Services has raised ₹600-700 crore (around $100 million) in the latest round of fund-raising ahead of its transformation as a small finance bank, said two people aware of the development.
In 2015, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued small finance bank licences to 10 entities, including Janalakshmi.
The others are Equitas Holdings Ltd, Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, Au Financiers (India) Ltd, Capital Local Area Bank Ltd, Disha Microfin Pvt Ltd, ESAF Microfinance and Investments Pvt Ltd, RGVN (North East) Microfinance Ltd, Suryoday Micro Finance Pvt Ltd and Utkarsh Micro Finance Pvt Ltd.
“Janalakshmi has raised around ₹600-700 crore from a bunch of new investors, including Harbourvest, which has invested around ₹250-260 crore (approximately $40 million). The round has been closed recently,” said one of the persons cited above, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to speak with the media. Mint could not ascertain names of the other investors that participated in the latest round.
Harbourvest is an independent, global private investment firm with more than $45 billion in assets under management. It has committed more than $32 billion to newly-formed funds, according to its website. JCCI is the biggest chamber of commerce in Japan. It comprises 515 local chambers of commerce and members include big companies and small and medium enterprises (SMES).
Japan’s economic success has been spurred by SMES. JCCI is characterised by a strong presence of SMES. So from here, an 80-member delegation is coming, from 21-24 January. The delegation is They represent automobile, retail, food processing, textiles, logistics, transportation and service industries. Interest in India is growing. So it is not only traditional sectors like automobile and steel but also wide ranging-areas which include retail and food, among We hope there will be some more cuts in tax rates under GST. We are saying that with regard to automobile issues, we would welcome a reduction in the rate for electric cars, but we hope attention will be given to import of hybrid cars, too. If some tax incentive can be provided to hybrid cars, too. Also, we are hoping some measures on foreign currency restrictions including external commercial borrowings.