<article>UK private equity firm<a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/actis" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Actis</a> in investing up to $220 million equity capital in Indian non-banking financial company <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/profectus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Profectus Capital</a>, founded by former CEO of Reliance Commercial Finance, KV Srinivasan.</article>

UK private equity firm<a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/actis" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Actis</a> in investing up to $220 million equity capital in Indian non-banking financial company <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/profectus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Profectus Capital</a>, founded by former CEO of Reliance Commercial Finance, KV Srinivasan.
In a statement, Actis announced that &#8220;it is building an Indian non-banking financial company focused on secured lending to small and medium enterprises with a plan to fund the platform with up to $220m of equity capital over a five-year period.&#8221;
The announcement comes close on the heels of Actis leading a $82-million funding round along with <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/altimeter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Altimeter Capital</a> in digital payments platform <a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/pine-labs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pine Labs</a> in March this year.
Actis has been an active investor in the Indian financial services space earlier also, when it was a 26 per cent shareholder in UTI Bank (now Axis Bank) and a founding investor in<a href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/idfc" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> IDFC</a>.
Profectus Capital will exclusively focus on lending to SME businesses operating in a dozen targeted sub-sectors, tapping into India’s culture of small family businesses with over 30 million SMEs and the sector is experiencing secular growth in demand for credit.
&#8220;We are looking to build a high quality, professional and successful institution focused on the core of the fast growing Indian economy, its SME sector,&#8221; said Asanka Rodrigo, Partner and Head of South Asia at Actis.
With the immense potential for NBFCs in India, given the population that requires funds, the segment has been seeing tremendous investor interest.
According to a ICRA Ratings Ltd report, as on 31 December 2017, the total managed NBFC-retail credit stood at around Rs 7 trillion up from Rs 6.1 trillion in March 2017, registering an year-on-year growth of 18.3 per cent compared to 15.5 per cent in 2016-17.
It was recently also reported that APAC Financial Services, the non-banking financial company founded by Deutsche Bank’s former Asia Pacific chief Gunit Chadha, was in talks with Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt. Ltd to raise around $44 million.
&#8220;SMEs are a vital cog in the Indian economy and have a huge unmet demand for capital. They are best placed to serve this demand in the most efficient manner,&#8221; said Pratik Jain, a Director at Actis.
Also Read:
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-pine-labs-actis-capital-altimeter-94147/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India: Payments firm Pine Labs raises $82m from Actis Capital, Altimeter, others</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-digest-202-87387/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Actis likely to make $200m initial investment in NBFC Profectus</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/apac-financial-multiples-98414/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">APAC Financial in talks to raise $44m from PE firm Multiples</a>
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British private equity firm Actis in investing up to $220 million equity capital in Indian non-banking financial company Profectus Capital, founded by former CEO of Reliance Commercial Finance, KV Srinivasan.

PE firm Actis to invest up to $220m in Indian NBFC Profectus Capital

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PE firm Actis to invest up to $220m in Indian NBFC Profectus Capital

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