Avanti Finance secures Rs 15 crore from Dell Foundation, to provide affordable loans to small businesses

Mumbai: Avanti Finance, an NBFC founded by Ratan Tata, Vijay Kelkar and Nandan Nilekani, has tied up with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to provide affordable loans to the pandemic-hit small businesses.

Under the collaboration, the Dell Foundation will provide low-cost Rs 15 crore debt to Avanti, which the NBFC will use to provide unsecured loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh to low-income borrowers in urban and peri-urban areas, the lender said in a statement on Tuesday.

Avanti expects the collaboration to help it lend to micro-entrepreneurs secure low-cost debt as they strive to rebuild their livelihoods and resume business activity.

“We are committed to helping micro-entrepreneurs return to normalcy and be on a path to recovery. Avanti’s open-access technology platform enables credit operations in a paperless, presence-less and cashless manner and ensure that funds are channelled to the right borrowers and help them rebuild livelihoods that have been disrupted by the pandemic,” said Nat Malupillai, director at Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India.

“This impact-driven initiative to support entrepreneurs with limited access to capital will help them rebuild their businesses and financial health, which have been severely affected by the pandemic. In the next few months, this low-cost loan programme will help them regain their economic and social status,” said Manish Thakkar, chief operating officer at Avanti.

The Dell Foundation, which is focused on enabling children and youth to reach their goals through quality education and employment opportunities, has over the past 14 years invested over USD 200 million in the country, impacting the lives of over 12 million children and families in the country.

Tata, Kelkar and Nilekani founded Avanti Finance as a digital financial inclusion platform with an objective to provide affordable financial services to unserved and underserved households.