Aye Finance, a fintech lender, announced that it had allocated Rs 100 crore for Shakti Loan in the current financial year and planned to extend credit to 10,000 women operating micro enterprises.
According to Aye, Shakti Loan was made possible by CGAP, a partnership of more than 30 leading development organizations, including the World Bank, UNDP, and Mastercard Foundation, which aims to improve the lives of the underprivileged, particularly women, through financial inclusion.
Aye was incorporated in 2014 and is backed by CapitalG, Elevation Capital, Light Rock, Alpha Wave, A91 Partners, and MAJ Invest.
The lender claimed that since its inception, it has disbursed over Rs 7,000 crore to over 6.5 lakh micro businesses, enabling their financial inclusion.
“We are very optimistic about Shakti Loan being the game changer for women micro enterprises and have allocated INR 100 crore to this product in the current financial year,” said Niraj Kaushik, Deputy CEO, Aye Finance.
Aye’s Shakti Loan has been designed to address the challenges women-led businesses face to ensure adequate capital is available to help them unlock their tremendous growth potential, the lender, which provides unsecured loans, said in a release.
“By providing affordable credit, we hope the tailored nature of Shakti Loan will help unlock the growth potential of women micro-entrepreneurs and contribute to the advancement of women’s economic empowerment in India,” said Xavier Faz, CGAP’s Lead, Financial Services for Equality and Growth.
