Dealflow | July 9, 2018

Gray Matters, Caspian sell stakes in Indian School Finance Company

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, July 6 – The Delhi-based Indian School Finance Company offers loans to Indian educational institutions. The Indian School Finance Company has served more than 4,000 schools, 77% of which are affordable private schools charging less than 1,200 rupees ($18) in fees per student. It was one of the early dedicated lenders for low-cost private schools–a space that has since seen the emergence of other players, like Varthana. As of March, its loan book amounted to 5.2 billion rupees ($76 million).

  • The incubation game… Gray Matters Capital, an impact investment firm that has invested in numerous education-focused companies in India, began incubating the Indian School Finance Company in 2009 and then invested $6 million in the company in 2016.
  • Moving on… Gray Matters has sold its 81.9% stake in the Indian School Finance Company to Manappuram Finance, a non-banking financial services firm based in the southern state of Kerala. Manappuram acquired Gray Matters’ stake along with the impact investor Caspian’s 3.5% stake for 2.1 billion rupees ($31 million), VCCircle reports.