U GRO Capital disburses INR 7.9 billion in Q2 FY22

By Leandra Monteiro

The Board of Directors of U GRO Capital Limited approved the financial results for the quarter and half year ended 30th September 2021 at its meeting held through video conference on Tuesday, 2nd November 2021.

Key updates for the quarter

• Disbursements for the quarter stood at INR 7.9 billion registering a Q-o-Q Growth of 139%. Also, the company clocked its highest ever disbursements in Sep’21 (INR 2.88 billion)
• AUM stood at INR 19.33 billion as of Sep-21 growth 98% YoY and 41% Q-o-Q
• Total cumulative disbursements crossed INR 36.36 billion since inception
• Customer base crossed 10,000 mark
• Company continued to expand its physical footprint. Branch count increased to 55 as compared to 34 in last quarter
• Company has added 23 new lenders in the last twelve months taking the total active lender base to 37 as of Sep-21
• Total Income at INR 627 million increased 80% YoY and 22% Q-o-Q
• The Company continued to hire additional manpower on the business side in line with its growth plans. Total employee base at the end of the quarter stood at 580 vs 194 employees a year ago. The total employee base as of today (October end) has crossed the 700 mark

Commenting on the results, Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director of U GRO Capital stated, “We started our operational journey in January 2019 and completed our first full year of operational run from April 2019 – March 2020 which was one of the most turbulent time for NBFC industry post IL&FS crisis. As we were coming out of the after effect of the same, the business was completely halted from April 2020 – September 2020 and again in April 2021 to June 2021 due to the impact of covid pandemic. Our Q2 FY22 results are testimony to our long-term commitment to solve the credit problem of MSMEs through our sectoral approach, digital platform combined with both multi-channel asset engine and collaborative partnership on liability side.

Within our defined sector we have now built capabilities to serve small business customers with borrowing need of Rs. 1 Lac to Rs. 3 Crores through our four-pronged asset channel and we have been successful in building India’s first fully data driven underwriting platform which has embraced the Data Tripod of GST, Banking & Bureau.”

He added, “We continue to expand our distribution reach through our GRO Micro branches, and their relative contribution would start getting reflected in next few quarters, our Prime Branches have reached maturity and we are adding people to improve the throughput, our Eco System Channel, both SCF & Machinery is benefiting from the digital and physical footprint we have created. In last two quarters our GRO – Xstream platform has on boarded more than fifteen FinTech / NBFC partners on asset side and Banks on liability side. We will carry on the momentum and traction which is now coming because the infrastructure we have built over last one year and we have a clear path of achieving our mission of serving 1mn customers and take 1% market share of outstanding MSME Credit of India.”