Tata invests in Grameen Capital

MUMBAI: Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of the more than $100-billion Tata Group, has invested in a debt vehicle of micro financial advisory firm Grameen Capital. This marks his second investment in the social impact space.
Tata, who recently invested in Swasth, a healthcare service provider to low-income group, has been building a portfolio of investments in the social impact and e-commerce sectors.The septuagenarian’s previous consumer internet investments include Snapdeal, Paytm, Urban Ladder, Bluestone and CarDekho.
Besides Tata, Shrinivas Dempo of Goa-based Dempo Group and former investment banker Vikram Gandhi have invested in Grameen Capital’s debt vehicle, which has an initial fund-raise target of $10 million. Grameen Capital did not give the financial details of the transaction.
Tata, Dempo and Gandhi join other investors, including Patni brothers — Amit and Arihant — and Grameen Foundation, who have invested in the debt vehicle. Grameen Capital, led by Royston Braganza, has facilitated over $160 million of debt and equity capital for social enterprises, according to a company statement.
The non-banking finance company, which focuses on agriculture, affordable health and affordable education, is also in advanced discussions with two institutional investors to raise additional equity capital for the debt vehicle, the statement added. Grameen Capital expects to commence lending from the new vehicle in the next quarter.

“Our debt vehicle is a critical part of our capital-with-a-conscience ecosystem strategy,” said Braganza. “Traditional sources of debt, in many cases, are neither adequate, affordable nor timely, hence forcing social enterprises to end up using equity for working capital. We hope that our debt vehicle will help, in some modest manner, attract attention and debt capital to the base of the pyramid.”
According to industry estimates, there is a $200-billion gap in debt capital available to micro, small and medium enterprises in the country.