Vegafin lines up Rs 1,000 crore for a Bizloan stake
Vegafin lined up to Rs 1,000 crore from Premji Invest, Norwest and Lok Capital for a majority of Bizloan. The NBFC stake still awaits Reserve Bank approval.
Vegafin is set to take up to Rs 1,000 crore, or 10 billion rupees, from Premji Invest, Norwest and Lok Capital, with part of it for a majority of Bizloan rather than for another lending app. On October 21, 2026, the three investors said they will back the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) platform founded by former ICICI Bank executive Bijith Bhaskar. A joint statement puts part of the money into the Gurugram non-bank and the rest into the platform. The stake price was not disclosed.
Bizloan, the non-banking financial company (NBFC) in the deal, writes secured MSME loans. It has about Rs 235 crore in assets under management (AUM), more than 35 branches in five states, and has operated since 2018. Bhaskar told The Times of India that buying a lender would save 18 to 24 months against a blank licence. Against a commitment of up to Rs 1,000 crore, that time is the asset. Money drawn would be dry powder for new loans, not a price on the book already there. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the layer he wants on files and branches he would otherwise have to build.
A press note says Vegafin and the investors have signed definitive agreements, and that closing still needs regulatory approvals. EY Investment Banking is the exclusive financial advisor. Rahul Jain, Abhishek Mishra and Vikram Diwan founded Bizloan. The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Mohan Enterprises will exit, and BLinC Invest stays. Press Trust of India, citing Premji Invest, said Bhaskar had also held a senior role at that office after more than two decades at ICICI Bank. He is founder, chief executive and managing director of Vegafin.
Rivals are tightening, not answering
Lendingkart, Indifi and Aye Finance have not addressed the Vegafin commitment. In April 2026, Alok Mittal, cofounder of Indifi Technologies, told The Economic Times that digital lenders underwrite riskier firms than banks and were more careful where stress showed. Sanjay Sharma, managing director at Gurgaon-based Aye Finance, said restaurants and dry cleaners, 6 to 7 percent of that book, were already feeling effects, though repayments had held. Vegafin is agreeing to buy secured credit instead.
Other raises on this site took another path. NeoGrowth raised Rs 85 crore from FMO and LeapFrog. Archa raised $11 million to drop personal guarantees. finmid raised €17 million for Bolt and Skroutz lending. Salmon Group added $140 million for Philippine lending. None of those is an agreement to buy a majority of a branch NBFC.
What the backers said
In the joint statement, Bhaskar said the MSME sector "faces a staggering credit gap, pegged at more than ₹30 trillion," and that India needs a pan-India lender that can price that risk at an efficient cost. The gap is his figure, not a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) release. He told The Times of India that technology should cut cost and turnaround time rather than headcount, and that loans would run from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for kirana stores, hardware shops, pharmacies and other firms that may lack formal income papers.
Saravanan Nattanmai, partner for financial services at Premji Invest, said: "By co-creating and empowering platforms such as this, we are driving real business growth for the small businesses that underpin the economy." Niren Shah, managing director and head of India at Norwest, said "Bizloan provides a strong foundation for this journey." Rajat Bansal, a partner at Lok Capital, said semi-rural and rural India remains significantly underserved by formal credit. Kaustubh Jhaveri, a vice president at Premji Invest, said Vegafin starts with capital, talent and distribution that other platforms spend years assembling. Jain said: "We will scale our on-ground presence alongside stronger digital capabilities."
The Reserve Bank sets the clock
RBI directions of November 28, 2025 require prior written permission before any takeover or acquisition of control of an NBFC, and before a shareholding change of 26 percent or more. A public notice must then run for at least 30 days in one national newspaper and one local vernacular paper. A majority stake meets both tests, and approvals are still open. Until the Reserve Bank writes, the Rs 1,000 crore is a commitment, not cash in a loan book.
Bhaskar said the capital will fund the book, origination systems and two or three more states within six to 12 months, and that he aims to triple AUM in 12 to 18 months. Tripling about Rs 235 crore would still sit below the commitment, so the round is build capital. The investors have not given a split or a valuation. If the Reserve Bank clears control, Vegafin keeps the 18-to-24-month head start. If permission slips, that head start shrinks, and the model has data but no licence to lend. The test is the first amount drawn after the letter.
Reporting by Rick Steves. Filed 23 October 2026, 20:54 GMT.
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011.
