Taking into account the provisions for governing bodies that apply under the ‘Freedom of Information Act’ (‘Wet openbaarheid van bestuur’) and the ‘Data Protection Act’ (‘Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens’), the Fund Manager of the DGGF part ‘Financing local SMEs’ will publish its anticipated transactions.
Views
Parties can express their views on the proposed transaction to the Fund Manager by contacting dggf@pwc.com within 30 days after the publication date of the notice. After the transaction has been closed, or after it has become clear that the transaction will not take place, the Fund Manager will respond as soon as possible to these Parties concluding on the expressed views by these Parties.
Description of proposed transaction
Part of DGGF
Financing Local SMEs
Name of Financial Institution (FI)
Aryadhan Financial Solutions Private Limited (Aryadhan)
Domicile FI
India
Nature of the activities of the FI
Aryadhan is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) which started operations in 2017 by 3 founders i.e. Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra and Chattanathan who also spent more than a decade in ICICI Bank and started Agri Banking. Aryadhan is 100% subsidiary of Arya Collateral (Hold Co) along with Arya Tech being a subsidiary too. It started with collateral management business for banks in 2013 and slowly progressed to financing under Aryadhan in 2017 with most recent development of trade commerce platform named Arya Tech in 2020.
The experience of Arya Collateral in working with various stakeholders in the value chain has formed the basis for the incorporation of Aryadhan. Arya is an end to end service provider to Farmers, Farm Produce Organizers (FPOs), Small Traders and Processors. The main product is Post Harvest Warehouse Financing (95%). The average loan amount is EUR 98,500 at 15.3% APR with a bullet repayment at end of an average tenure of 7 months. It has presence in 17 states. The AUM as on Sep-25 is EUR 110 Mn with EUR 210 Mn disbursed in FY 2025. Arya Collateral holds 99.99% in Aryadhan. The shareholding of Hold Co includes Institutional Investors like Lightrock & Aspada, Accion, Quona, Omnivore, Blue Earth and Asia Impact in addition to promoter and non-promoter Individuals.
Size of proposed investment
DGGF will provide a Senior secured loan to Aryadhan of EUR 5 million.
Intended transaction date
The Fund Manager aims to close the agreement with Aryadhan by 31st December 2025.
Expected financial results
A positive financial return on the investment is expected.
Expected impact
Aryadhan’s customer base is primarily SMEs, with 83% having turnover below EUR 50 million and all customers having fewer than 250 employees. The majority of loans fall within the DGGF’s target range, supporting small-scale farmers, traders, and processors who are underserved by traditional banks. 28% of Aryadhan’s farmer members are women, and the company has developed a network of 5,000 Community Value Chain Resource Persons (CVRPs), many of whom are women leaders. These CVRPs play a key role in training and engaging women farmers, directly supporting DGGF’s gender inclusion mandate. Approximately 18.5% of Aryadhan’s individual customers are youth.
Aryadhan’s current funding is split between banks (55%) and financial institutions, including only a few impact-focused lenders. DGGF’s involvement would be catalytic, helping Aryadhan attract more development finance institution (DFI) capital and set a precedent for future funding rounds. Aryadhan operates in regions highly affected by climate risks (e.g., droughts, floods, untimely rains). Its post-harvest interventions -such as climate-resilient storage infrastructure- help reduce food loss (from 7–7.5% to less than 0.5%) and cut carbon emissions by minimizing transportation distances. Over 90% of storage locations are near farms, supporting both environmental and social sustainability goals. This alignment positions Aryadhan as a compelling candidate for DGGF support, both in terms of direct impact and as a model for future investments including embassy's focus on food security and potential combi track facility.
ESG compliance
To improve Aryadhan’s ESG risk management, it will adopt DGGF’s exclusion list, to apply prior to loan extension. During the due diligence phase, Aryadhan assesses several ESG related dimensions, but will also include the topics of forced labor, adequate wages, and health & safety, to ensure that related risks are mitigated at an early stage. Besides this, Aryadhan requires its portfolio to comply with local Indian environmental and social laws. To ensure that all of these procedures are accurately documented, Aryadhan will set up documentation that substantiates the process for integrating ESG into the loan approval process in accordance with the DGGF ESG Policy. Lastly, after implementing the abovementioned requirements, Aryadhan will share the client due diligence documentation for the first two loan extensions.
Tax compliance
DGGF will invest in Aryadhan which is established as a private limited company in India and will be subject to corporate income tax in India. Aryadhan provides debt financing to SMEs located in India, which will generally be taxed at the applicable tax rates in India. Aryadhan is not making use artificial constructions to lower its taxation or the taxation of the SMEs that it finances. Aryadhan requires the companies it invests in to comply with local laws and regulations, amongst others, those regarding tax. DGGF’s investment conditions focus on ascertaining that Aryadhan and its SMEs meet their ongoing tax obligations and DGGF’s tax requirements. Furthermore, DGGF will monitor that Aryadhan acts in accordance with the DGGF tax criteria.