Alphabet-backed Aye Finance raises Rs 454 crore from anchor investors ahead of IPO; Goldman Sachs key investor

Alphabet-backed Aye Finance has raised Rs 454 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO that opens for public subscription on February 9, providing a strong institutional endorsement to the NBFC focused on lending to micro-scale MSMEs.

The company informed stock exchanges that it allocated equity shares to anchor investors at Rs 129 per share, the upper end of its price band. The anchor book saw participation from a clutch of global and domestic institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale, HDFC Life, BNP Paribas Financial Markets, Bay Pond Partners and Ithan Creek Master Investors (Cayman), according to the filing.

The anchor allocation comes days ahead of the Rs 1,010 crore IPO, which will open on February 9 and close on February 11, with listing scheduled for February 16 on the BSE and NSE. The issue comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 710 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 300 crore by existing investors, including Alpha Wave India I LP, MAJ Invest Financial Inclusion Fund II, CapitalG LP, LGT Capital Invest Mauritius and Vikram Jetley.

Aye Finance has fixed the price band for the issue at Rs 122 to Rs 129 per share, with a face value of Rs 2 per share. Investors can bid for a minimum of 116 shares and in multiples thereafter. At the upper end of the price band, the retail application size works out to Rs 14,964.

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Founded in 1993, Aye Finance is a non-banking financial company in the middle layer category, focused on providing secured and unsecured business loans to micro-scale MSMEs. Its borrowers are spread across manufacturing, trading, services and allied agriculture sectors. As of September 30, 2025, the company had 586,825 active customers across 18 states and three union territories and assets under management of over Rs 6,027 crore, according to a CRISIL report.

The lender specialises in small-ticket loans, with an average disbursement ticket size of around Rs 0.18 crore, and has built underwriting capabilities around assessing cash flows of micro enterprises clustered across different geographies. This approach has helped the company maintain stable credit costs while scaling its loan book, industry analysts said.

On the financial front, Aye Finance reported revenue from operations of Rs 843 crore for the six months ended September 30, compared with Rs 692 crore in the year-ago period. For FY25, revenue stood at Rs 1,460 crore, while net profit rose to Rs 175 crore, up sharply from Rs 40 crore in FY23.

Axis Capital, IIFL Capital Services, JM Financial and Nuvama Wealth Management are the book-running lead managers to the issue, while KFin Technologies is the registrar. The offer is being made through the book-building route, with up to 75% reserved for qualified institutional buyers, and the rest allocated to non-institutional and retail investors.

The strong anchor response is expected to lend momentum to the IPO as it opens amid active primary market conditions and rising investor interest in profitable, scalable NBFC business models.

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