New Delhi, Jul 21 (KNN) U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, technology enabled small business NBFC, on Wednesday announced the launch of a co-lending partnership for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) with Bank of Baroda, one of the largest banks in India.

Termed as ‘Pratham’, the loan disbursements have commenced on the occasion of Bank of Baroda’s 114th Foundation Day. The program has been launched under Reserve Bank of India’s revised co-lending guidelines.

‘Pratham’, a Rs 1000 crore co-lending program will allow the MSMEs to avail customized lending solutions at a competitive rate of interest with a significant reduction in turn-around time. The loan amount ranges from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2.5 crore to be offered at an interest rate starting from 8 per cent with a maximum tenure of 120 months.

Speaking on this partnership, Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, U GRO Capital said, “It gives us immense pleasure to launch one of our most significant programs ‘Pratham’ and sign the co-lending agreement with Bank of Baroda under RBI’s revised guidelines. It is a reiteration of the value and trust that the bank places on our ability to leverage sectoral expertise and technology to solve the unsolved credit need of the MSMEs. We look forward to nurturing this essential relationship in our bid to support more MSMEs in the remotest locations, to help them revive and grow.”

“We are glad to have joined hands with U GRO Capital by way of this co-lending program, which resonates with our intent to extend support to more MSMEs. We believe that forging such partnerships is the way forward and collaborative efforts leveraging individual entities’ expertise are of utmost importance to take co-lending to the MSME segment to the next level. This is a significant advancement in the same direction,” said Vikramaditya Singh Khichi, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda.

‘Pratham’ program requires minimum documentation while providing financing to MSMEs. U GRO Capital’s proprietary developed platform GRO-Xstream, allows faster turnaround time, with an in-principle approval issued within 60 minutes.

A wide range of MSMEs including the recently added Wholesale & Retail Traders under Priority Sector can avail credit via this program. The program is accessible to MSMEs across 200+ channel touch points around nine locations, i.e. Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.