Private credit fund manager Vivriti Asset Management, a subsidiary of mid-market lender Vivriti Capital, has secured an additional $20 million in senior debt commitments from the Development Bank of Austria for the Vivriti India Retail Assets Fund, per an announcement.
The latest fund infusion from the Development Bank of Austria takes the total commitments in the fund to $165 million, bringing it closer to its targeted corpus of $250 million.
Launched in March 2023 at GIFT City, India’s international financial services centre, Vivriti India Retail Assets Fund is a first-of-a-kind asset-backed securitization fund in the country.
The fund has been set up with the objective of scaling investments in small-ticket loans to micro and small enterprises (MSEs), as well as individuals with a focus on women entrepreneurs.
Development Bank of Austria is known for supporting impact investments in developing countries by financing private sector projects that foster sustainable economic growth, particularly in green finance, SME development, and financial inclusion.
As of March 2025, Vivriti India Retail Assets Fund’s AUM stood at $140 million.
Since its inception in 2019, Vivriti Asset Management has disbursed over $200 million, supporting 25 NBFCs. These loans have reached more than 350,000 individuals and over 100,000 MSME borrowers, and of those, over 75% are women.
“Development Bank of Austria’s capital will directly strengthen our ability to extend funding to high-quality financial institutions that are empowering women and small businesses across India,” Vineet Sukumar, founder & managing Director at Vivriti Asset Management, said in a statement.
“We continue to innovate in structured credit to bridge the country’s credit gap while delivering risk-adjusted returns to investors,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sabine Gaber, member of the executive board at Development Bank of Austria, added: “Promoting small and medium-sized enterprises and financial inclusion as well as gender equality are among the focus areas of our strategy 2024-2028.”
Vivriti’s other LPs in the fund include names such as British International Investment (BII), Calvert Impact, M&G Catalyst, and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The fund focuses on investing in asset-backed securities that are backed by granular retail and MSME loans, thereby supporting NBFCs and other financial institutions serving underserved borrower segments.
India’s 63 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) contribute up to 30% of the country’s GDP, generate over 40 per cent of exports, and create employment for over 100 million people.
An IFC study estimates the MSME finance gap in India is $342 billion.
