Avanse Financial Services, an education-focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) has raised Rs 800 crore from Kedaara Capital. The fund-raise will be deployed to expand its presence and outreach to Indian students enabling them to fulfill academic aspirations and lead the development of the Indian education ecosystem.
Warburg Pincus continues to be the majority shareholder in Avanse.
As of December 2022, the company has assets under management (AUM) of about Rs 8,000 crore, reporting a 1.9x growth. During the first three quarters of the financial year 2022-2023 (9MFY2023), Avanse reportedly witnessed the highest-ever growth in its loan disbursement of approximately Rs 4,850 crore, delivering about 2.5x growth over the same period last fiscal.
As a student-centric organisation, Avanse claimed to have fulfilled the educational dreams of over three lakh academic aspirants across about 3,000 institutes and more than 25,000 courses in over 50 countries. The company also provided growth and working capital to more than 1000 educational institutes catering to over 5 to 6 lakh students.
“As the world recovered post the pandemic, we witnessed a significant resurgence of students seeking higher education at international locations. We have responded with agility, leveraging technology to develop customised financing solutions to address unique student demands. The growth capital will enable us to strengthen our brand proposition, integrate digital solutions and innovate to build more depth into our product range as we work towards delivering greater stakeholder value,” said Amit Gainda, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of Avanse Financial Services.
“The Indian education finance segment is witnessing strong secular growth, and we look forward to providing continued support to Amit and his team towards achieving their goal of democratising education and education financing,” added Narendra Ostawal, MD, Warburg Pincus and non-executive director, Avanse Board.
“We look forward to using our operational expertise and experience in the financial services space to help them realise their long-term vision,” said Sunish Sharma, managing partner and co-CEO, Kedaara Capital.
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction, and AZB & Partners represented the company and Warburg Pincus as legal counsel. Khaitan & Co. acted as legal counsel to Kedaara Capital.
