The US-based impact investor Microvest Funding Management has provided $10 million in debt capital to the small business-focused fintech Neogrowth. The company received $300 million last month from a number of investors in debt and equity, with the help of a Rs 160 crore equity investment from Dutch lender FMO.

According to the company, which is backed by Omidyar Network, Lightrock, Khosla Impact, Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, Quona Capital, IIFL Seed Ventures Fund, WestBridge Capital, and Leapfrog Investments, the investment will enable Neogrowth to provide financing to small businesses while assisting it in obtaining the necessary growth capital.

Microvest is an impact investor with a 19-year history of investing in microfinance institutions and small and medium enterprises. As an asset manager it specialises in allocating private debt capital to responsible microfinance and SME focused lenders. Since its founding in 2003, Microvest has disbursed over $1 billion to over 200 financial institutions in 60 emerging and frontier countries.

The latest funding from Microvest "will allow us to continue making a positive impact on MSMEs" and will be used to help accelerate their growth and integrate them into the mainstream financing ecosystem, Neogrowth managing director Arun Nayyar said.

"Through this loan, we are leveraging both of our organisations' synergies to achieve meaningful scale and contribute to the sustainable development goals," Microvest chief executive Joshua Moraczewski said.

Neogrowth, founded by Dhruv and Piyush Khaitan, has over 1,50,000 clients and has disbursed over $1 billion in loans across 25 locations. Neogrowth has ten years of experience in SME lending. Neogrowth provides loans to underprivileged small businesses, women company owners, and first-time entrepreneurs across 70 MSME categories.