Annapurna Finance raises $20 million equity from German DEG

Microfinance lender Annapurna Finance raised $20 million (about Rs 150 crore) in equity from German development finance institution DEG.

DEG is a subsidiary of the KfW Group, a Frankfurt-based state-owned investment and development bank.

This is the second equity infusion in Annapurna this year. It had raised $30 million from US-based Nuveen Global Impact Fund in March 2021.


DEG investment would be channelised to further boost the financial inclusion objectives of Annapurna, it said. "DEG’s investment would only help us further to meet our goal to provide easy credit access to unserved rural populations in the country,” managing director Gobinda Chandra Pattnaik said.

Bhubaneswar-headquartered Annapurna is India's fifth largest NBFC-MFI with a gross loan portfolio of Rs 5,128 crore at the end of September.

“We would be keen to provide our support, knowledge and advice to a great institution like Annapurna which is working towards financial betterment of rural livelihoods in India,” Wladislaw Solounov, vice president at DEG, was quoted as saying in a statement issued by Annapurna on Thursday.