Diversified conglomerate Eleven injected ₹216 crore into its financial services arm, taking its cumulative investment in the business to ₹470 crore.
The capital infusion accompanies a strategic shift: Eleven's NBFC arm is moving away from a pure microfinance (MFI) model toward a diversified lending platform with a heavy focus on MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) credit.
Three factors are cited as driving this pivot across the sector. First, RBI is tightening oversight of unsecured microfinance lending amid rising default risk and over-leveraging concerns at the bottom of the pyramid, raising the regulatory burden on pure MFI players.
Second, MSMEs represent a large, profitable 'missing middle' — needing bigger ticket sizes than microfinance can offer, but still too informal for large corporate banks to underwrite easily.
Third, the spread of UPI, GST, and digital accounting has given MSMEs verifiable digital data trails, letting NBFCs underwrite a ₹15 lakh MSME loan with the same speed and confidence they once reserved for a ₹20,000 micro-loan.
