Premji Invest, Norwest, Lok Capital invest Rs 1,000 cr in Vegafin | India Business News

BENGALURU: Premji Invest, Norwest and Lok Capital have invested up to Rs 1,000 crore in Vegafin, a micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) lending platform founded by former ICICI Bank executive Bijith Bhaskar. The platform will begin operations with the acquisition of a majority stake in Bizloan, a Gurugram-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) focused on secured MSME lending.Vegafin plans to combine AI-driven credit underwriting, digital workflows and data-led risk assessment with an on-ground distribution network to expand access to credit for underserved small businesses.Bizloan operates across five states through more than 35 branches and manages assets under management (AUM) of about Rs 235 crore. Founded in 2018 by veteran bankers Rahul Jain, Abhishek Mishra and Vikram Diwan, it is currently backed by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, BLinC Invest and Mohan Enterprises.Bhaskar said India’s MSME sector faces a credit gap of more than Rs 30 lakh crore, creating an opportunity for a pan-India lender that can assess risk accurately and serve customers efficiently.“We intend to build a hybrid ‘phygital’ lending platform to democratise access to MSME credit. Our ambition is to leverage AI and harness data from multiple sources to develop deeper insights into MSME businesses, enabling faster, granular and accurate assessment of credit risk,” he said.In an interaction with TOI, Bhaskar said acquiring an existing lender would save 18–24 months compared with building a business from scratch. Bizloan also offers an established secured-loan portfolio, a presence in markets Vegafin intends to enter, and data that can help develop and validate its credit-underwriting models.Vegafin plans to focus on loans ranging from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for businesses such as kirana stores, hardware shops, pharmacies and small enterprises that may lack fully formalised income documentation.The capital will be deployed towards expanding the loan book, building proprietary loan origination and management systems, and entering two or three states over the next six to 12 months. Bhaskar said the company aims to triple its current AUM over the next 12–18 months.He said technology would help lower operating costs and turnaround times rather than simply reduce headcount. Combining branch-level staff with AI-led assessment, he added, would help the lender price risk more accurately and make secured credit more accessible.Saravanan Nattanmai, partner-financial services at Premji Invest, said, “We see a meaningful opportunity to use technology to reduce friction and improve access to credit for MSMEs in India.”