Hivos-Triodos backs Indian agri financier

Hivos-Triodos, the impact investment fund of Dutch sustainable banking group Triodos Bank, has invested €2.5 million of debt financing into IntelleGrow, an Indian small and medium enterprise financier.

IntelleGrow provides growth-stage debt financing to small and middle income Indian companies in the agriculture, clean energy, healthcare and financial sectors. The company is a social enterprise which is part of IntelleCap, an Indian investment banking, research and consultancy group.

India’s social enterprise sectors are currently underfunded, missing out on domestic venture capital which favours e-commerce and advanced technology investment, according to contributors to a recent webinar.

IntelleGrow has one agriculture investment, Milk Mantra, which raised $13 million in a series C fundraising round in June this year.

“IntelleGrow fits perfectly as an extension to Hivos-Triodos Fund’s goal to catalyse growth in selected high impact sectors, specifically in agriculture and renewable energy,” said Willem Enklaar, fund manager of the Hivos-Triodos Fund. “We look forward to enable further growth of IntelleGrow with our loan, which makes us IntelleGrow’s first international lender.”