Neogrowth Credit Bonds

NeoGrowth Overview

NeoGrowth is an SME-focused NBFC that uses digital payment data and analytics-based underwriting to assess the creditworthiness of small businesses. Its lending portfolio includes business loans to retailers and merchants, as well as supply-chain financing for MSMEs.

1. Entity and business: NeoGrowth is a non-deposit-taking, systemically important NBFC registered with the RBI. It provides business loans to small businesses, including retailers and merchants. Its lending portfolio includes unsecured as well as secured products.
2. Founders: The company was founded by Dhruv Khaitan and Piyush Khaitan, who previously established Venture Infotek, an electronic payment-processing company.
3. Corporate history: NeoGrowth commenced lending operations in FY13. It built its business around digital payments-based lending, using merchant transaction data and analytics to assess small-business borrowers.
4. Investors and lenders: Its investors include ON Mauritius, Aspada Investment Advisors, Khosla Impact Fund, Frontier Investments Group (Accion), Trinity Inclusion (Leapfrog), FMO, 360 ONE Seed Ventures Fund and Plentitude Ventures. Its funding sources also include domestic and overseas lenders, banks, NBFCs and development finance institutions.
5. Scale: ICRA reported total managed assets of ₹2,537 crore as of March 2026 and ₹2,283 crore in Q1 FY27. These figures are based on ICRA's managed-assets measure, grossed up for provisions.
6. Performance: NeoGrowth reported total income of ₹591 crore and a net loss of ₹72 crore in FY26. Its Q1 FY27 results showed total income of ₹132 crore and a net loss of approximately ₹4 crore.

The company's scale has reduced from its FY25 level as it tightened lending following asset-quality pressures. Gross Stage 3 assets improved from 6.8% in FY25 to 5.8% in FY26, and stood at 5.3% in Q1 FY27.

NeoGrowth Key Metrics at a Glance

History of NeoGrowth Credit

NeoGrowth was founded by Dhruv Khaitan and Piyush Khaitan, who had previously built Venture Infotek, a payment-processing business serving banks and merchants. The founders used their experience in the payments ecosystem to develop a lending model focused on small businesses.

The company commenced lending operations in FY13. Its model uses digital payment data, analytics-based underwriting and flexible repayment structures to provide credit to SMEs, including retailers and merchants.

Over time, NeoGrowth attracted investment from institutional and impact-focused investors, including FMO, Leapfrog, Accion, Khosla Impact Fund and other institutional shareholders. It expanded its product range to include retail business loans and supply-chain financing.

Its managed assets reached ₹3,112 crore in FY25. However, asset-quality pressures and higher credit costs led to a more cautious lending approach. Total managed assets declined to ₹2,537 crore by March 2026 and further to ₹2,283 crore in Q1 FY27.

NewGrowth Board of Directors and Key Management

NeoGrowth is led by Mr. Arun Nayyar, who serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. The company's founders, Dhruv Khaitan and Piyush Khaitan, have also been associated with its board.

The company's 2024 corporate brochure identified Deepak Goswami as Chief Financial Officer. He should not be listed as the Chief Executive based on that document.

The latest complete board composition and director DINs should be checked against current MCA records before publication.

NeoGrowth Credit Shareholding Pattern

NeoGrowth is backed by a mix of founders, management and institutional investors. ICRA's November 2026 disclosure identifies the following investors:

• ON Mauritius
• Aspada Investment Advisors
• Khosla Impact Fund
• Frontier Investments Group (Accion)
• Trinity Inclusion Limited (Leapfrog)
• FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank
• 360 ONE Seed Ventures Fund
• Plentitude Ventures Limited
• Mr. Arun Nayyar

The percentage shareholding of these investors has not been established from the sources used for this profile. Therefore, they should not be presented as a percentage-wise shareholding pattern without the latest annual return or company shareholding disclosure.

NeoGrowth's financial performance weakened in FY26. Total income declined to ₹591 crore, while the company reported a net loss of ₹72 crore. This followed a PAT of ₹9 crore in FY25 and ₹71 crore in FY24.

The company's total managed assets also declined, reflecting its cautious lending strategy following asset-quality pressures. Its capital adequacy remained relatively strong, with CRAR at 29.0% in FY26 and 28.3% in Q1 FY27.

Source: ICRA. Amounts are in ₹ crore. Q1 FY27 figures are provisional. Total managed assets are grossed up for provisions.

The managed-assets figures in this table follow ICRA's reporting series. They should not be mixed with AUM figures published by other rating agencies, which may use different definitions. For example, CRISIL reported AUM of ₹2,119 crore as of March 2026 in a separate securitisation rationale.

NeoGrowth Key Strengths

1. Strong Backing: Backing from renowned investors including Omidyar Network, Lightrock, Khosla Impact Fund, Quona Capital, IIFL Venture Funds, and LeapFrog Investments.
2. Moderate capitalization: The company maintains a healthy CRAR of 29.11%, well above the RBI's minimum requirement of 15%, while improving its leverage from 3.53x in FY24 to 2.78x.
3. Experienced Founders: Founders bring over two decades of experience in the e-payment industry, supported by an experienced NBFC management team with strong lending and risk management expertise.
4. Marquee Equity Investors: The company is backed by marquee investors including Omidyar Network, Lightrock, Khosla Impact Fund, Quona Capital, IIFL Venture Funds, and Leap Frog Investments.
5. Strong Promoters & Management: NeoG is led by founders Piyush and Dhruv Khaitan, who bring over two decades of industry experience and have successfully built Venture Infotek.

NeoGrowth Key Risks

1. Borrower Concentration Risk: The pool consists of only 138 borrowers, with the top 10 borrowers contributing 15.8% of the cash flows, making it vulnerable to borrower-specific defaults and concentration risk.

NeoGrowth Credit Credit Rating

NeoGrowth's long-term NCDs and bank facilities carry an [ICRA]BBB (Negative) rating, while its commercial paper programme is rated [ICRA]A3+.

On 17 November 2025, ICRA downgraded the company's NCDs and long-term bank facilities from [ICRA]BBB+ (Negative) to [ICRA]BBB (Negative). Its commercial paper rating was also downgraded from [ICRA]A2 to [ICRA]A3+.

The downgrade reflected continued asset-quality pressures, higher credit costs and weaker profitability. ICRA also highlighted the company's reduced AUM, increased loan-loss charges and breaches of certain financial covenants with lenders.

ICRA's 2 November 2026 update confirmed that the ratings remained unchanged:

The ratings for pass-through certificates (PTCs) are structured-finance ratings for specific securitised loan pools. They should not be confused with the company's own NCD or bank-facility ratings.

October 2026 interest-payment disclosure:

In its 2 November 2026 update, ICRA reported that NeoGrowth had been unable to remit ₹84.37 lakh of interest due on 30 October 2026 for the NCD under ISIN INE814O07634 to two investors. Of this, ₹84.29 lakh was paid, while ₹0.08 lakh (₹8,000) could not be remitted because the investors' bank account details were incorrect or their accounts had been closed. The unpaid amount was transferred to a separate escrow account on 30 October, the due date itself. ICRA stated that the issue did not reflect an inability or unwillingness to service debt and left the ratings unchanged under its default-recognition policy.

NeoGrowth Details