Ummeed In News

Ummeed Housing Finance lands Rs 164 Cr financing

The company plans to use the funds raised to expand into newer geographies, as well as further build its technology platform, with a focus on creating state-of-the-art underwriting practices.

Ummeed Housing Finance has raised Rs 164 crore from a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada.

The four-year-old, Gurugram-headquartered company will use the proceeds from the Series-D round to expand into newer geographies, as well as further build its technology platform, with a focus on creating state-of-the-art underwriting practices.

The affordable housing finance company, which was founded in 2016 by former Citi executive Ashutosh Sharma, has now raised close to 300 crore across multiple rounds of equity financing.
 

The latest round also comes a little less than 18 months after it had raised 72 crore from LGT Lightstone Aspada and Lok Capital.

"Given the participation from larger growth equity investors, the company will look to aggressively double asset under management to 1,000 crore over the next 12-18 months," Sharma, managing director of Ummeed Housing Finance, said. Avendus Capital acted as the financial advisor to the transaction.
 

Ummeed Housing Finance caters to the informal and low-income segment, predominantly in tier-II and tier-III towns, and operates through 26 hubs in Rajasthan, Haryana, the National Capital Region and Uttar Pradesh. It also offers secured business loans to the MSME sector.

The company’s offering includes Rs 3 lakh to Rs 50 lakh ticket-size loans for home purchase, home construction, home renovation, loan against property and business loans.

“Affordable housing finance presents a large untapped opportunity, which Ummeed intends to address through its scalable operating model built with the right blend of technology, people and processes,” Nirav Mehta, managing director, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, said.

Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia has invested across sectors in Asia’s third-largest economy, including consumer products, financial services and healthcare, among others. Earlier this month, it reportedly invested Rs 190 crore in Centrum Housing Finance

In October last year, ET reported that the investment firm, along with Brahmal Vasudevan’s Creador, had led a Rs 300 crore funding round in non-banking finance company Kogta Financial.

LGT Lightstone Aspada came into being in 2019 after Swiss investor LGT acquired Aspada, an India-focused impact investment fund, to expand its impact investing platform LGT Lightstone, from Soros Economic Development Fund.

“We believe that this investment is a strong testament to the company’s robust operating model and focus on asset quality and will help Ummeed scale as a distinctive player in the affordable housing finance space,” Kartik Srivatsa, managing partner at LGT Lightstone Aspada, said.