Sachin Bansal, Poonawala family to invest Rs 100 cr in tech-enabled small business lending platform, U Gro Capital

Sachin Bansal, co-founder of home-grown Flipkart, has entered into a tie-up with the Poonawala family and will jointly invest Rs 100 crore in technology-enabled small businesses lending platform U Gro Capital. The duo will invest through two separate securitisation and bond deals, according to a report in The Economic Times. The securitisation deal has already been done with Poonawalla Finance, which owns India’s largest vaccine maker Serum Institute of India, the report added. U Gro Capital is a BSE-listed firm set up by former Religare Finance chief executive Shachindra Nath. [caption id=“attachment_2870640” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Sachin Bansal, co-founder, Flipkart. image courtesy CNBC.[/caption] However, according to a   report by The Hindu Business Line, the investment is for Rs 75 crore, of which Bansal has invested Rs 50 crore and Poonawalla Finance Rs 25 crore. “We wanted to break this myth that liquidity is not available. For companies which are deeply focused and with deep under writings and with good quality assets, liquidity is not a constrain,” U Gro Executive Chairman Shachindra Nath was quoted in the report. The funding will be used to fund business expansion, he said. Bansal has separately entered into a non-convertible debenture deal with U Gro, according to ET,  after selling Flipkart for a whopping $16 billion to Walmart last year. He has invested in other NBFCs. Last month, he acquired a majority stake in Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services Pvt. Ltd (CRIDS), for Rs 739 crore. “There will be a total infusion of INR 739 crore from Sachin. He will assume the role of CEO of CRIDS…and will provide additional support to create further impetus to business growth… Both Samit Shetty and Anand Rao will continue in their respective roles of growing the existing business segments,” a statement said about his investment in CRIDS. Founded by Anand Rao and Samit Shetty, CRIDS provides credit access to the underbanked population and a majority of its business is in microfinance. Bansal, who has been an active investor in the Indian start-up ecosystem including companies like Ola and Bounce, will also assume the role of CEO at CRIDS, the statement added. He also invested Rs 250 crore each in non-banking financial companies Altico Capital India and IndoStar Capital Finance,   Mint reported citing sources.