ESAF Microfinance and Investments raises USD 2.6M from Dia-Vikas

ESAF Microfinance and Investments (EMFIL), one of Kerala’s leading microfinance companies, recently raised USD 2.6 M (INR 12 crore) by diluting a minority stake to Dia Vikas Capital, a 100% subsidiary of Opportunity International, Australia. The parent f

unding company is a global leader in providing microfinance and enterprise development services. This was the first round of capital raising by the company in its bid to scale up operations and increase its outreach. Sloka Capital, an advisory firm that specializes on SMEs and start-ups, was the advisor for this transaction.
Based out of Thrissur, Kerala, EMFIL has successfully spread out its operations to 5 other states in India and now provides a host of financial services ranging from credit, insurance, money transfer and micro-energy loan. Guided by its vision to bring cost-effective financial services to the poor, EMFIL has built a borrower base of over 230,000 borrowers with a network of 90 branches, and has a cumulative disbursement of INR 401 crore. In April 2008, EMFIL successfully completed a transformation into a RBI regulated Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).

In March this year, ESAF Microfinance programme was ranked 14th on the MIX 100 Global composite conducted by US- based Microfinance Information Exchange Inc. (MIX).

Continuing its growth path, the company aims to reach out to one million poor households by 2014 with further increase in its network of branches and providing variety of loan products to cater to diverse client needs. Paul Thomas, Founder and MD of EMFIL said, “This investment marks an important milestone for ESAF in its decade long journey and I would like to thank all my staff, sangam members (clients), stakeholders, banks and other institutions for their continued support. We will continue to work towards our vision to have a broad level impact on the lives of the poor.”
Under Paul’s leadership, ESAF group has successfully ventured into Healthcare, Retail, herbal medicine (Amruth), agro-food, handicraft (Preerna) and dairy products (Pentta). The hallmark of these ventures has been the community involvement and the large sangam members’ participations. Being a visionary, and a guiding force for the whole organisation, he envisions a larger integrated ecosystem which creates both economic and social impact in the society.