Aye Finance, a new-age non-banking finance company, has launched ‘Shakti Loan’, a lending product developed to ease the credit challenges of women in India.
The Capital G (Google parent Alphabet’s investment arm)-backed fintech lender has allocated ₹100 crore for Shakti Loan in the current financial year.
This NBFC, which started its journey in 2014, targets to reach 10,000 women by providing them with affordable credit as per their unique requirements along with non-financial support through its “not-for-profit” arm, FAME, which is equally important for their growth.
Shakti Loans
The Shakti Loans product has been developed by Aye Finance in collaboration with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), which is a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organizations, including the World Bank, UNDP, and Mastercard Foundation, that works to advance the lives of poor people, especially women, through financial inclusion.
Commenting on the launch of this women-only product, Niraj Kaushik, Deputy CEO, Aye Finance, said, “Aye is regarded as the lender of choice by the microenterprise sector in India, and through the launch of the Shakti Loan, we are committed to becoming the lender of choice for women-led businesses as well.
We are optimistic about Shakti Loan being the game changer for women micro enterprises and have allocated ₹100 crore to this product in the current financial year”.
Women-led micro businesses make a significant contribution to the economic metrics of India, but their potential remains largely untapped due to the systemic barriers they face.
Women owning micro enterprises widely point to the lack of access to capital as the biggest constraint to running and growing their businesses.
Aye’s Shakti Loan has been designed to address the challenges women-led businesses face and ensure adequate capital is available for them to help them unlock their tremendous growth potential.
Aye Finance has customised the entire loan-taking journey for women microenterprises, addressing the obstacles they face at each step.
“By providing affordable credit, we hope the tailored nature of the 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.
“We are delighted to have collaborated with Aye Finance in launching this product; their approach to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) finance and their use of Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) models to reach underserved segments are very exciting and hold a lot of potential to improve financial inclusion.”
Since its inception, Aye Finance has enabled the financial inclusion of over 6,50,000 micro businesses, having disbursed over ₹7,000 crore to them.