Franchise India, Religare join hands to lend Rs 500 cr loan to small businesses

Franchise India has joined hands with financial services group Religare Enterprises Ltd to provide Rs 500 crore loan for small businesses, especially franchise owners in a span of two years.

Gaurav Marya, Chairman, Franchise India says: “We have tied up with non-banking financial company (NBFC) Religare for providing Rs 500 Crore loan to small businesses, especially franchise companies. The facility would be launched on December 10th and the loan would be disbursed in two years. Our aim is to offer express loans. The objective was to help prospective franchise owners and also to help existing franchise owners to scale up their business.”

Marya adds “The country's franchise industry is estimated at $24 billion with a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent. The industry size is expected to reach $35 billion by 2020. Small businesses are the future for economies like Odisha. Odisha is producing one of the highest number of graduates but unfortunately there is hardly any job creation. There is the mining industry here but the graduating students are keener to join the retail and service industries. Unless we create service and retail jobs, these graduates cannot be absorbed. Odisha has 16,000 active franchises with 45 per cent of them in the retail sector.”

In Odisha, Franchise India has helped build franchises for brands like ITC, Arvind Ltd, Lotto, Being Human and Madura and premium jewellery brands like Tanishq and Gitanjali.  Franchise India is also scouting for franchises in Odisha for SportsFit brand.