Microfinance Focus, July 12, 2011: Business Correspondent and mobile banking technology provider Eko India Financial Services has received a $5.5 million USD in growth equity, raised jointly by Creation Investments Capital Management, LLC and Promus Equity Partners, LLC from a consortium of high net worth investors and a core investment from Creation Investments Social Ventures Fund I (CISVF).

The capital raised will be used to fund the growth of Eko’s mobile banking platform and agent footprint, facilitating deeper financial inclusion and outreach to the unbanked and under-banked in India.

Eko had earlier received grant funding through the CGAP Technology Program, which is co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Creation Investments Social Ventures Fund I is a US based private equity fund. Patrick Fisher, CEO and Co-Founder of Creation Investments said, “We are thrilled to have partnered with the strong management team of Eko, providing further human and financial capital to assist in scaling their exceptional product offering.  We believe that Eko has best-in-class technology which gives easy, secure, inexpensive and convenient last-mile connectivity to the unbanked, migrant workers and the poor”.

As a technology provider, Eko supports other Business Correspondents, including Microfinance Institutions, extending their outreach and product offering. Eko’s solution provides real-time connectivity to State Bank of India’s core banking system, near zero start-up CAPEX for the agent and low client literacy requirements.

“In Creation Investments, we believe we have found an extremely valuable partner, who is aligned to our values and committed to working with us to achieve our ambitious growth plans” said Abhishek Sinha, Co-founder and CEO of Eko. Eko had earlier received grant funding through the CGAP Technology Program, which is co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Present in Delhi, NCR, Bihar and Jharkand, Eko recently crossed $223 millon USD (1,000 crore INR) of transactions processed across 2.3 million customer transactions.