Northern Arc Investment Managers (NAIM), a private debt fund manager, announced on Thursday that it has raised Rs 65 crore (approximately $7.9 million) for its eighth fund from the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO).

The Northern Arc Impact India Fund (NAIIF) will be used to support and close funding gaps for impact enterprises (IE), according to a press release from Northern Arc.

NAIIF, a category-II AIF (alternative investment fund) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has a total corpus of Rs 700 crore and has raised capital from marquee investors such as domestic and international development financial institutions, global impact firms, domestic financial institutions, banks, corporate treasuries, and domestic and global family offices.

Blue Earth Capital, Anthos Fund & Asset Management from the Netherlands, and Calvert Impact Capital, an institutional impact investor based in the United States, are among the notable investors who participated in the first close. A greenshoe option of Rs 350 crore is available to the fund.

Northern Arc Group has raised nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in financing for customers since its inception in 2009. NAIIF has already invested 100 per cent of its commitments in 30 impact-focused sectors such as financial inclusion, agritech, and climate technology.

According to Northern Arc, 3.5 million women received funding in their bank accounts through NAIIF; 8.9 million residents of rural and semi-urban areas received funding; and 1 million borrowers were introduced to the financing system for the first time.

“BIO’s investment in the fund brings together catalytic capital and capacity building, and spurs ecosystem development to bridge the financing gap for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and IEs in emerging markets,” said Ravi Vukkadala, chief executive Northern Arc Investments.

Carole Maman, chief investment officer at BIO, said, “The Northern Arc India Impact Fund (NAIIF) is committed to supporting businesses and entrepreneurs that share this mission, and we are very optimistic about the work they are doing in this area.”

According to the company, the NAIIF extended approximately 5.2 million loans to finance farm productivity through the purchase of fertiliser/manure/seeds/tractor or equipment/livestock and poultry.

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