Inclusive Finance Providers

Partnership process

To ensure that Dia Vikas achieves its mission effectively, efficiently and at scale, we seek out local partners that are Inclusive Finance Providers that are offering responsible, innovative, and accessible services to poor people to help create pathways out of poverty and towards sustainable livelihoods.

When choosing partners, Dia Vikas considers mission alignment alongside governance, management and performance.

Our Partners: Inclusive Finance Providers

Dia Vikas embodies a model of social investment that is unique in the Inclusive Finance sector.  It has a strong track record of helping deliver microfinance solutions to millions of clients in India.

Prior to our establishment, only large MFIs were able to mobilise long-term equity investors. The majority of this was sourced from commercial private equity institutions. Small and medium MFIs, particularly those operating in risky or underserved areas, struggled to attract long-term equity investment. This situation exacerbated the divide between the southern states and urban areas, where MFIs attracted funding, and the underserved north, central and northeast states and rural areas, where intervention by MFIs were critically needed.

Since its inception in 2008, Dia Vikas has provided catalytic & patient capital to mission aligned financial inclusion partners with the mission to reduce poverty through provision of financial services to the underserved poor.

With its continued focus on social return, Dia Vikas is now seeking to address the changing and maturing needs of the poor households through inclusive finance Partners with innovative and tech/digital leveraged business models that have the capability to address the muti-dimensional aspects of poverty, create livelihoods and help build pathways out of poverty for their clients.

Avanti Finance Pvt. Ltd.

Avanti is a digital financial inclusion platform operating under an NBFC and MFI license with a vision to make affordable financial services accessible to 100 million unserved and underserved households.  The company is headquartered in Bangalore and has been operating since 2018. Avanti is co-founded by Mr Ratan Tata & Mr Nandan Nilekani through their philanthropy capital. Its mission is to usher in a new era of financial inclusion that brings financial empowerment & livelihood sustainability at a population scale powered by a digital-first model.

Avanti currently collaborates with 80+ active partners such as MFIs, Social organisations, Digitech, Agtechs etc. to reach its services in 32 states across India. Avanti’s partners bring the societal platform construct to life by embracing the operating principles of “Presenceless, Paperless and Cashless.”  Its Partners help create a digital footprint for borrowers and provide nuanced inputs into the borrowers’ creditworthiness, ability, and character.

Avanti is led by Mr. Rahul Gupta who has deep domain expertise in consumer finance in emerging & mature markets across Asia. 

As at March 31, 2024 Avanti was serving 438,035 clients with portfolio outstanding of Rs. 14 billion.

Pahal Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.

Pahal Financial Services Private Limited is an Ahmedabad-based NBFC-MFI registered with Reserve Bank of India. The company started its operations in March 2011. The Promoters of Pahal , Mr. Kartik Mehta and Ms. Purvi Bhavsar have experience of almost two decades in banking and finance. The company started its operations in March 2011 by acquiring the existing operations of Lok Vikas Nidhi, a trust operational in Gujarat for over 25 years. The current promoters of Pahal acquired the portfolio of Rs. 2.6 crore spread over 15 branches, along with the field staff of Lok Vikas and subsequently transferred the acquired portfolio to an NBFC, along with an equity contribution of Rs. 2 crore. The NBFC was renamed as Pahal Financial Services Pvt. Ltd.

Cashpor Micro Finance

Cashpor has been operating since 1997, and is one of the largest microfinance institutions in India. known for serving the poorest of the poor, Cashpor is operating in rural Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh where some of the poorest people in India live. It has developed the widely used Cashpor Housing Index as a means of identifying poor people so that they can be targeted and provided financial services. Other than housing index, it also uses Poverty Probability Index (PPI) for client targeting

Cashpor, since the beginning has realised that illiteracy, illness and accessibility to financial services are major impediments in breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Therefore, Cashpor has adopted a holistic approach to achieve its mission and vision by providing both financial and non-financial services. It provides educational services to the children of clients and also provides health education services to the clients through community health facilitators.

Cashpor is led by Mr. Mukul Jaiswal, who has over 17 years of experience in the field of microfinance. Mr Jaiswal has a long association with Cashpor group of companies – earlier in his capacity as a statutory auditor and thereafter in the capacity of Managing Director.

As at March 31,2024 it was serving 1,271,214 clients with portfolio outstanding of Rs. 53.9 billion.

Click for more information on Cashpor: www.cashpor.in

ESAF Small Finance Bank

As an MFI, ESAF was unique in many ways. Community ownership, higher proportion of female field staff, integrated approach etc. were some of the features, which distinguished the organization as a socially focused entity. The business model of the organization combined the unique methodology of selecting and servicing customers at the front end with technology, processes & disciplines of modern retail banking at the back end. They have had an excellent growth and consolidation phase in the past few years.

In 2015, the Reserve Bank of India, the financial regulator in the country has granted in-principle license to ESAF to launch a Small Finance bank. ESAF Small Finance Bank was one amongst the ten NBFCs to receive an ‘in principle’ approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up a Small Finance Bank in the private sector. In November 2016, the final license was issued by the RBI. ESAF Small Finance Bank was incorporated on May 05, 2016, with its registered office in Thrissur.

Triple bottom line approach is the underlying theme around which the larger vision of ESAF revolves. They believe in the depth and the breadth of development and this approach proves to be the right catalyst for the holistic change that they aspire. On par with the financial bottom line, they give emphasis to social and environmental bottom lines. This assertive approach was well intact in all stages of its transformation – from the society to an NBFC-MFI and from an MFI to a Small Finance Bank.

As at March 31,2024 ESAF had a portfolio outstanding of Rs 187.7 billion with a deposit base of Rs 1986.7 billion.

Click for more information on ESAF SFB : www.esafbank.com

North East Small Finance Bank

NESFB commenced operations on 17th October, 2017, as the first Small Finance Bank of North East India, after its conversion from RGVN (North East) Microfinance Limited, which had operated as a microfinance institution in the north eastern region of India for 20 years. As a bank, it is providing diversified loan and savings product to the clients. It is focusing on providing financial services to the people in the seven north eastern states of India which were historically underserved and underdeveloped in respect of financial services.

NESFB is led by Ms. Rupali Kalita who is instrumental in scaling up the microfinance programme of RGV(NE) and has more than 30 years of experience in banking sector.

As at March 31,2024 it was serving 151,530 clients with portfolio outstanding of Rs 8.4 billion.

Click for more information on North East Small Finance Bank: www.nesfb.com