$230mn deal: Partners Group to acquire 75% of Infinity Fincorp
Mumbai: Swiss private equity firm Partners Group is set to acquire True North's controlling stake in Infinity Fincorp Solutions, a Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC), outbidding rivals Advent International and Creador, said people familiar with the matter.
ADVERTISEMENT Partners Group will be buying 65% stake in Infinity, which offers micro loans against property, from Mumbai-based PE firm True North, the people said, adding it would also make a small primary capital infusion into the company.
Upon completion of the deal, Partners is expected to own a total 70-75% of the shadow lender for about $230 million, the people said. Partners has signed an exclusivity agreement with True North and is expected to sign the shareholder agreement in the next few days, the people said. The transaction will also give a monetisation route to Infinity's angel investors.
Founded in 2016 as a unit of National Bulk Handling Corporation with seed funding from Indium IV Holdings-a fund advised by True North, Infinity provides secured loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in underserved Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
16 minutes ago
- Mint
Investors tip to Indian manufacturers: adopt tech and become Silicon Valley for global funds
Singapore, Jun 21 (PTI) Given the government's generous incentives, the Indian manufacturing sector should adopt technology to become a "Silicon Valley" that attracts global sovereign funds, said Bengaluru-based industrialist-turned-investor Ankit Kedia. "Eventually, we should build Indian manufacturing startups that expand abroad as part of our future plans, as we want to make products for the world with a home-grown Silicon Valley-type ecosystem," Kedia said in an interview to PTI at the Super AI conference and exhibition held June 18–19 here. However, technology must be made affordable for these cash-strapped manufacturers operating in lower-cost environments in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, he said. Bengaluru, already recognised as a technology hub and often called India's Silicon Valley, should now focus on manufacturing, especially by leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, he suggested. Kedia, who is currently working on a ₹ 400-crore Fund-2 under his five-year-old Capital-A, shared his vision for the Indian manufacturing sector over the next 15 years, aiming for a strong foundation across the country, starting with low-cost factories in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. With two decades of experience in various industries and five years of running Capital-A Fund-1, Kedia is focused on technologies for the manufacturing sector, which he wants to combine with his long-term investment horizon of 15 to 20 years. Kedia has explored opportunities for the use of AI in manufacturing at the Super AI show, stating that he is returning home to raise ₹ 400 crore for Fund-2, which will be strategically invested in factories in Tier-II and Tier-III cities such as Amritsar, Pune, Ahmedabad. "We want hardware producers in these cities to form the foundation of our future manufacturing ecosystem and to share prosperity across the country," he said. "India's large consumer market, along with the government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, provides further confidence to investors to support small and medium-sized software or hardware manufacturers, who will have a low-cost advantage when competing globally,' he emphasized. Kedia also sees international sovereign funds moving to India for better returns on investment, especially as they face pressure from global uncertainties. Capital-A Fund-1 has reported an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 28 per cent and is being tracked at 1.8X, Kedia said. "Such fund returns are becoming more and more attractive to sovereign funds in Europe and the United States," said the fund manager, who invested ₹ 120 crore under Fund-1 across 25 investments five years ago. "The strong domestic market, the stability of the Indian ecosystem, and the potential of leveraging an increasing number of free trade agreements (FTAs) between India and international markets are all plus points for our manufacturing sector," he underscored. Harshul Arora, founder and CEO of Noida-based Macgence, noted that more and more enterprises are shifting to AI-automation to be more cost-effective and capture a bigger share of the market through efficient production. "Small manufacturers in Tier-II and -III city regions are able to use AI to communicate with their clients – a real time translation is offered to these small manufacturers to communicate in any language with clients. "This will increase their communication skills and reach to global businesses as well as a large audience," said the 24-year-old who started with a language solutions company and now runs training data solutions for AI companies globally. Over 7,000 participants from more than 100 countries attended the Singapore Super AI.
The Print
an hour ago
- The Print
Govt meets stakeholders to assess impact of Iran-Israel conflict on trade; monitoring situation
The participants informed that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is currently stable and a ship reporting system is in place to monitor any incidents. New Delhi, Jun 20 (PTI) The commerce ministry on Friday held consultations with key stakeholders, including shipping lines, exporters, container firms, and other departments, to assess the impact of the Iran-Israel conflict on India's overseas trade, an official said. The freight and insurance rates are also being closely monitored, the official said. The commerce secretary emphasised the need to assess the evolving situation and its impact on Indian trade, the official said. He highlighted the importance of exploring all possible alternatives in response to the situation. Exporters have stated that the war, if escalated further, would impact world trade and push both air and sea freight rates. They have expressed apprehensions that the conflict may impact the movement of merchant ships from the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Nearly two-thirds of India's crude oil and half of its LNG imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has now threatened to close. This narrow waterway, only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, handles nearly a fifth of global oil trade and is indispensable to India, which depends on imports for over 80 per cent of its energy needs. According to think tank GTRI, any closure or military disruption in the Strait of Hormuz would sharply increase oil prices, shipping costs, and insurance premiums, triggering inflation, pressuring the rupee, and complicating India's fiscal management. The present conflict that began with an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 had brought cargo movement through Red Sea routes to a halt due to attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial shipping. Last year, the situation around the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping route connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, escalated due to attacks by Yemen-based Houthi militants. Around 80 per cent of India's merchandise trade with Europe passes through the Red Sea, and substantial trade with the US also takes this route. Both these geographies account for 34 per cent of the country's total exports. The Red Sea Strait is vital for 30 per cent of global container traffic and 12 per cent of world trade. India's exports to Israel have fallen sharply to USD 2.1 billion in 2024-25 from USD 4.5 billion in 2023-24. Imports from Israel came down to USD 1.6 billion in the last fiscal from USD 2.0 billion in 2023-24. Similarly, exports to Iran, amounting to USD 1.4 billion, which were at the same level in 2024-25 as well as in 2023-24, could also suffer. India's imports from Iran were at USD 441 million in FY25 as against USD 625 million in the previous year. The conflict adds to the pressure that the world trade was under after the US President Donald Trump announced high tariffs. Based on the tariff war impact, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has already said that global trade will contract 0.2 per cent in 2025 as against the earlier projection of 2.7 per cent expansion. India's overall exports had grown 6 per cent on year to USD 825 billion in 2024-25. PTI RR HVA This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
At 16, Pranjali Awasthi built a Rs 100-cr AI firm, now she's making ‘ChatGPT with hands'
If you're looking for proof that age is just a number in tech, meet Pranjali Awasthi. She's the Indian-born, US-based coder who started programming at seven, interned at research labs by 13, and launched her own AI startup – --at just company hit a valuation of around Rs 100 crore (about 12 million dollars) in just over a story is as much about passion as it is about opportunity. Born in India, she moved to Florida at 11, where her dad, a computer engineer, encouraged her love for coding. She dove into computer science and competitive maths at school, and soon found herself interning at Florida International University's Neural Dynamics of Control she worked on machine learning projects from a young age, even helping with research to differentiate ADHD types using EEG THE RS 100 CRORE AI STARTUPIn January 2022, Pranjali founded in Miami. The idea was to make research easier for is an AI-powered platform that helps researchers extract and summarise information from academic content, PDFs, and can search multiple documents at once, connect to your cloud drives, and export results in CSV format. There's even a free plan, with paid options for more quickly grabbed attention, raising around $450,000 (Rs 3.89 crore) from investors like Backend Capital and Village Global. By October 2023, it was valued at about Rs 100 love it because it can cut down on repetitive R&D tasks by up to 75%, saving them hours of NEXT? DASH—HER 'CHATGPT WITH HANDS'Now 18, and a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) student at Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, Pranjali has moved on to her next big thing: Dash. She calls it 'ChatGPT with hands'.Dash is designed to be an AI assistant that doesn't just chat, but can actually take action -- think automation, not just month, Dash hit number one on Product Hunt, and Pranjali celebrated the launch of their official Discord server with a post on RESEARCH LABS TO THE FUTURE OF AIPranjali's journey didn't start with She's interned at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, and led workshops at also completed the Creative Destruction Lab's Apprentice Program, diving into AI, agriculture, and story is proof that you don't need to wait to make an impact. As she puts it, was built to 'go behind the paywall to get you relevant information fast' -- and now, with Dash, she's aiming to make AI even more useful.
