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Delhi based affordable housing finance company Ummeed Housing Finance has secured $3.5m in Series A funding led by Lok Capital and Duane Park. Ummeed focuses on providing housing finance access to families with low, informal income and aims to differentiate itself by leveraging technology, including going paperless and using tablets—which can help study customers, run algorithms for credit scoring and disburse loans at a faster pace—at branches.
The company is backed by a team of former Citibank professionals, who have experience in commercial banking, credit and mortgage. Sachin Grover, chief operating officer, has over 20 years of mortgage experience at Citi Financials, IIFL and Magma Housing. The operating team consists of professionals with mortgage experience at Magma, AU Housing Finance and Shubham Housing Development Finance Company. “The company targets families that have semi-formal or informal incomes and comprise the bottom-of-the-pyramid, remain largely under-served by housing finance companies and banks for loans below Rs 10 lakh, making them dependent on local money lenders,” said Sharma. The firm is currently operational in east Delhi and plans to have 11 branches across north and central India, targeting 1,500 customers in 12 months.
