BENGALURU: Mahaveer Finance, a Chennai-based NBFC focused on used commercial and passenger vehicle lending, has raised Rs 200 crore in a Series C round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from existing investors BanyanTree Finance and First Bridge Capital.

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The capital will be used to expand the company’s branch footprint in South India, strengthen its proprietary credit infrastructure, and deepen lending to underbanked customer segments. Mahaveer currently manages over Rs 1,000 crore in assets and aims to grow its AUM fivefold by FY28.

Founded in 1981, Mahaveer entered the used vehicle financing segment in 2001 and has built what it calls a valuation-led underwriting model that assesses vehicle price, usage history, and configuration down to “ownership changes and body type,” according to CEO Deepak Dugar.

“A major challenge in used vehicle lending is price discovery. We tackled this by backward integrating into the resale business early on. That helped us build a deep grid-based model that powers our credit decisions,” Dugar told TOI.

Since 2016, under the second-generation leadership of Dugar and CFO Praveen Dugar, Mahaveer has expanded its operations to 80 branches across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Puducherry.

The company says about 70% of its borrowers are first-time vehicle owners or new-to-credit customers, typically aged between 30 and 45.

Elevation’s investment is seen as a validation of Mahaveer’s growth strategy in a segment still heavily dependent on informal lending. “Around 35% of the market is unorganised. Our value lies in helping customers buy right by guiding them on vehicle pricing and keeping defaults low,” said Praveen Dugar.

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Mahaveer’s in-house credit engine, Surety, combines customer inputs, asset data, and API-led KYC authentication to deliver near-instant loan offers at the branch level. The company claims field executive productivity has improved from three to four loan files per month, driven by reduced cash collections and tech-led assessments.

Cash collections have declined from 60% pre-Covid to about 10-15% currently, allowing executives to spend more time on sourcing, Dugar said.

Mahaveer is also evaluating secured MSME loans and potential entry into EV financing, although it expects the used EV market to mature only over the next few years.

With over 40 lenders, including SBI and HDFC, on its books and a historically profitable track record, the company said it has sufficient capital for the next 12-18 months. While valuation and promoter stake details were not disclosed, the company has added new independent board members, including a former RBI CGM, as part of its governance expansion.