Tech-led affordable housing finance company Altum Credo has raised over $40 million through the conclusion of its Series C equity round with investors including Z3Partners and OIkocredit leading the same with participation from British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.
Existing investors including Aavishkaar Capital, Amicus Capital and PS Pai & family also participated in this round taking the total fund raising by the housing finance company to nearly $62 million. Prior to this, it secured $9.8 million in Series A equity funding in 2018 and $12 million in Series B equity funding in 2021.
“As India traverses towards being a $5 trillion economy, access to affordable housing finance has immense potential to contribute towards this growth… With every funding round we realise our objective towards deepening our resolve to provide accessible and long-term housing finance solutions to those who are still unserved or underserved,” said Vikrant Bhagwat, MD & CEO, Altum Credo.
The company has raised $27 million in equity and facilitated partial exit to Series A investors of $13 million. It plans to use the proceeds from the current fund raise to achieve assets under management (AUM) growth by further enhancing its distribution network and operational footprint. This also enables the company to remain well-capitalized in the near-term and support growth.
“We believe Altum Credo is at an inflection point where physical and digital infrastructure come together to provide industry-leading operational metrics. This investment fits into our core thesis of technology being a catalyst to financially empower the underserved segment of Bharat, while also building businesses in a profitable and scalable manner.,” Rishi Maheshwari, Managing Partner, Z3Partners.
Altum Credo obtained the housing finance license in June 2017, and has been focussing on the largely untapped potential of unserved and under-served segments, targeting first time homeowners. As of March 2024, Altum Credo’s AUM stood at Rs 830 crore with 93% of its customers from the economically weaker section and low-income group category.
The digital-first financer, which has technology infrastructure embedded across its entire loan-lifecycle, has insisted on 100% cashless transactions since inception.
The Pune-headquartered company’s customer base consists of a mix of salaried customers across both formal and informal segments and self-employed proprietors of small and medium enterprises who predominantly belong to low-income groups.
These customers aspire to own a home, but most have little or no access to long-term credit therefore remaining unserved and underserved by large financial institutions. Altum Credo aims to bridge this gap by providing long term finance, making instalments affordable, through technology assisted service delivery.
The average ticket size of the company’s home loan portfolio is at Rs 8.5 lakhs with an average tenure of 15 years. With loan-to-value ratio below 50%, the average value of the properties funded is around Rs 15-25 lakhs.
