After a year of inception, Sachin Bansal-owned Navi Technologies is diluting 4.5% stake worth $30 million to World Bank’s investment arm – International Finance Corporation or IFC.
The investment is a part of Bansal’s taking over Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services (CRIDS), a non-banking financial company. He had also become the CEO of the company in September last year.
CRIDS has a wholly-owned subsidiary Chaitanya India Fin Credit Private Limited (CIFCPL).
According to a disclosure report by IFC, the investment in NAVI is to support the transformation of Chaitanya into a technology-led universal bank or NAVI Bank (the Project). Further, it would provide mass-market banking solutions for individuals and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and select corporates.
IFC’s $30 million for $4.5% stake projects Navi’s valuation at about $670 million.
Chaitanya, which provides loans to low-income customers in rural areas largely on the joint-liability-group lending (JLG) model, has made an application to the RBI for a universal banking license under the RBI’s On-Tap Banking License Guidelines.
Since the launch of Navi, Bansal has been trying to acquire a licence to open up a new-age bank. As per RBI guidelines, getting a banking licence requires him to have significant experience in the financial services space.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, Navi has made around dozen investments in startups as well as NBFCs namely Kissht, VOGO, Bounce, Krazybee, MavenHive. Altico Capital, CRIDS. Most recently, it acquired DHFL General Insurance from Wadhawan Global Capital (WGC) for around Rs 100 crore.
In November 2018, Bansal had also poured Rs 888.5 crore into Navi in a personal capacity.
