The Chennai-based digital debt platform Northern Arc Capital has successfully concluded a $50 million external commercial borrowing (ECB) transaction with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Tuesday.
JICA is Japan’s governmental agency and mainly promotes the economic and social growth in developing countries.
Northern Arc Capital will use the proceeds to serve the credit demands of women borrowers or towards products that benefit women. The transaction is expected to reduce the economic and social impact of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
“Northern Arc Capital is a unique and important financial institution that supports funding of the Indian NBFC sector, which plays a key role in promoting financial inclusion in India. We expect more Indian women to have access to financial services through this partnership with Northern Arc. Also, we are delighted that this loan is our first co-financing with USDFC in India,”said Keiichiro Nakazawa, senior vice president, JICA.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Northern Arc Capital has raised funds from international investors like ADB, USDFC, FMO and Calvert Impact Capital, the platform said in a statement.
“This transaction is proof of Northern Arc’s ability to forge partnerships with and attract funding from reputed global DFI’s. We are excited to partner with JICA to further our mission of catering to the diverse credit requirements of undeserved households and businesses. The usage of proceeds will be towards promoting women entrepreneurship and employment, an important target area for the company,”said Kshama Fernandes, Managing Director and CEO, Northern Arc Capital.
Founded in 2008 in Chennai by KshamaFernandes, this platform is a Non-Banking Finance Company and provides borrows with access to the debt investors. It provides access to a wide range of debt opportunities to sectors like microfinance, affordable housing finance, agriculture finance, mid-market corporate finance, small business loans, vehicle finance, consumer finance and a lot more.
Since 2009, this platform has enabled financing for Originator Partners who have impacted over 54.21 million lives across India, of which most of them were women. Till December 2020, more than 75 per cent of the total underlying borrowers were women.
