New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) Education loan focussed digital lender Avanse Financial Services has disbursed loans worth close to Rs 550 crore during the April-December period of the current fiscal.

Avanse Financial Services said it has provided growth as working capital to nearly 500 educational institutes catering to over 6 lakh students.

The total amount disbursed from April to December 2020 is nearly Rs 550 crore, the company said on Wednesday.

As the latest offering to its borrowers, Avanse has announced to waive the last three EMIs from the entire loan repayment for the women aspirants and students supported by female co-applicants.

This offer is also extended to other students apart from just female aspirants.

Students with a female co-borrower or any woman guardian from the family can benefit from this exceptional offer launched by Avanse Financial Services, the company said.

This offer will be available for education loans sanctioned between March 8 and May 8, 2021. This is applicable to any domestic or international higher education programme, the company said.

Avanse said till date, nearly 32 per cent of the students funded by it are women educational aspirants.

With the government's various initiatives to encourage women to enrol more in engineering and technology domains as well as in PhD courses, Avanse Financial Services too focuses on introducing measures to encourage female students to come forward to fulfil their academic aspirations, it said.

"As we aim to constantly enhance the overall education ecosystem in India with affordable solutions, this offer has been launched with the motive of empowering female students to pursue their educational dreams and women who encourage education in their family," Amit Gainda, CEO, Avanse Financial Services said.

In the next 12-18 months, the company said it will focus on calibrated disbursement in line with market outlook, and optimise expense management.

The company said it expects to grow at 18-20 per cent in the next 3-5 years.

It has fulfilled the education aspirations of about 1 lakh academic aspirants across 12,000 institutes and courses in over 50 countries, Avanse said.

Warburg Pincus, the global private equity firm holds 80 per cent of the equity stake in Avanse. International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank holds a 20 per cent equity stake in the company, as per its website.

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