NEXI Provides Loan Insurance for Hella Infra Market
Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) has provided loan insurance for back financing related to a loan extended by a venture debt fund to Hella Infra Market Singapore, a Singapore-based subsidiary of an Indian start-up company.
This marks the first individual transaction under the framework agreement entered into by NEXI, Mars Growth Capital, and MUFG Bank in October 2023 to provide loan insurance comprehensively for financings to overseas start-up companies.
Under this framework, Mars Growth Capital, a venture debt fund established by Mars Growth Capital, extends a loan to Hella Infra Market Singapore, where NEXI provides loan insurance for the back financing to this debt fund, arranged through a trust account managed by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation. The source of the back financing includes contributions from Japanese institutional investors —Daido Life Insurance Company, Joyo Bank, and The Hachijuni Bank—as well as committed capital from Mars Growth Capital Fund 1, LP, managed by Mars Growth Capital.
Hella Infra Market Limited, a parent company of the Underlying Borrower which issued a guarantee for this loan, is a unicorn start-up in India operating a marketplace platform that connects domestic and international real estate and construction companies with Indian SME suppliers of construction materials, and Hella Infra Market Singapore, as the Underlying Borrower, is engaged in export related activities, including maritime logistics for cross-border transactions dealt with on the platform.
Through this insurance arrangement, NEXI aims to facilitate collaborations between overseas start-up companies supported under this framework and Japanese companies by liaising with J-Bridge, a business platform developed by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).
NEXI, as a governmental financial institution of Japan, will continue to provide financial support to overseas start-up companies with innovative business models utilizing digital technologies through this framework, and will continue to contribute to the creation of new innovations and the resolution of global social challenges by facilitating collaboration between these start-up ventures and Japanese companies seeking to adopt such technologies and ideas through open innovation.
Norbert Gehrke
