MUMBAI: U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, technology enabled small business lending platform has entered into a co-lending programme with Sunvest Capital, India’s first dedicated rooftop solar financing NBFC, which will catalyse rooftop solar ecosystem and accelerate the efforts towards achieving the ambitious clean energy targets by the government.
Leveraging the expertise and market intelligence of Sunvest and the tech-driven knowledge of U GRO in SME lending, the co-lending programme with a corpus of Rs. 20 crore will power the clean energy initiatives with an aim to help the MSMEs save the electricity cost hugely by offering them solar panel finance, besides reducing the carbon footprint in the country.
The collaboration assumes significance as the government has set a renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022 and solar rooftop energy is expected to contribute 40 GW to the overall target. However, India has so far installed only 10% of its rooftop solar target, leaving a huge potential for growth that is impeded by financial concerns among the MSMEs.
“We look forward to a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with Sunvest Capital to fill this market gap and join the nation-building through carbon mitigation and clean energy promotion,” said Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman, U GRO Capital.
A new-age listed fintech platform, UGRO has already made a mark with its tech-enabled platform to solve the ever-growing credit gap in the SME sector.
The company has developed proprietary tools which comprise of customized SME sector specific statistical scorecards, underwriting insights based on deep sub-sector level research put together in a highly integrated technology platform. This helps in getting an in-principle decision for the loan application within 60 minutes.
The Company has already disbursed more than US$100mn across 6000+ small businesses in a short span of 10 months. Through the co-lending programme with Sunvest Capital, U GRO Capital aims to create a deeper social impact by facilitating solar panel finance to SMEs so that can reduce electricity overheads.
At a broader level, the initiative will promote use of green energy among the SMEs as well to protect the environment sustainability.
