# Bama Balakrishnan

> Bama Balakrishnan is a debt financing investor at Northern Arc backing Financial Services. See 14 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Northern Arc](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ifmr-capital)
- Location: Chennai, India
- Total investments: 14
- Last investment: Jul 2022
- Lead investor: 71%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bamabalakrishnan/?originalSubdomain=in

Bama Balakrishnan is a debt financing investor at Northern Arc in Chennai focused on Financial Services and FinTech. Bama Balakrishnan Chief Operating Officer at Northern Arc Capital.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Financial Services | 8 | 57% |
| FinTech | 6 | 43% |
| Finance | 4 | 29% |
| Apps | 2 | 14% |
| Banking | 2 | 14% |

30 industries tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| India | 11 | 79% |
| Singapore | 1 | 7% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DrinkPrime | DrinkPrime was started to solve a personal problem - How do people get access to clean, safe, and healthy drinking water?First, most of the water in plastic cans isn’t fit for drinking. Second, less than 5% of Indians actually own a water purifier. That’s when DrinkPrime's founders realized this wasn’t just a personal problem but anopportunity to help a lot of people.It’s been five years since DrinkPrime started on this journey. Today, more than 25,000 households in 7 cities trust DrinkPrime to access clean and safe drinking water. |  | Debt Financing | Jul 20, 2022 |  |
| Zypp Electric | Zypp Electric is an EV delivery app that operates in the last-mile space. Zypp is working to convert all deliveries for e-commerce, grocery, medicine, and food verticals to go electric with an e-scooter sharing app. Making last-mile delivery more affordable, time-saving, and with zero emission. Zypp, through its continuous efforts to invest andstrategize toward the mission of zero-emission, has become the first EV logistics player to turn into an EBITDA-positive business. | $1M | Debt Financing | Apr 25, 2022 |  |
| RevFin | RevFin is a digital lending company. | $13M | Debt Financing | Mar 13, 2022 |  |
| Avanse Financial Services | Avanse Financial Services is a technologically advanced, education-focused NBFC that aims to provide seamless and affordable education financing to all deserving Indian students. The company offers loans in three categories: Student Loans, Loans for Professionals, and Institution Loans. Its financial solutions span the entire education ecosystem,from pre-school to post-graduation and education infrastructure financing. | $47.6M | Debt Financing | Jan 28, 2022 |  |
| Klub | Klub is a fintech play providing growth financing to high-affinity brands. Klub’s investment platform, which utilizes financial innovation, community engagement, and deep data-driven analytics, provides skin-in-the-game growth capital to entrepreneurs of much-loved brands across sectors. |  | Debt Financing | Dec 03, 2021 |  |
| True Balance | True Balance is a digital wallet owned and operated by Balancehero India Private Limited (BHI), that enables users to access utility bill payment, loan recharge, insurance, and other financial products. With 70 million users, True Balance aims to serve India with utility payments financial platform for the unbanked users to serve their money forliving requirements. Affinit is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), provides digital financial services through TrueBalance.It was launched in 2014 by Mr. Charlie Lee as CEO, an alumnus of the University of Chicago. | $30M | Debt Financing | Nov 23, 2021 |  |
| BharatPe | BharatPe is an Indian fintech company that primarily focuses on providing financial services to small and medium-sized merchants. It facilitates digital payments through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Point of Sale (POS) devices. Additionally, BharatPe offers various services such as business loans and other financial products to empowermerchants in managing their finances. | $26.9M | Debt Financing | Aug 19, 2021 |  |
| Olyv | SmartCoin is a mobile app based lending platform, capable of assessing the risk profile of a prospective borrower in real time, using data science and machine learning algorithms. Their proprietary credit underwriting engine aggregates thousands of data points on a customer’s smartphone to build a customized credit score. A customer is instantlyoffered personalized loan products on the basis of his risk and capacity, and the money is transferred digitally to their bank account. | $10.7M | Debt Financing | Jul 20, 2021 |  |
| Holisol Logistics Pvt. Ltd. | HoliSol Logistics is a leading 3PL logistics company and exchange-to-exchange tech-enabled supply chain solutions company that offers multi-channel fulfillment solutions for B2C and B2B businesses. It offers multi-channel fulfillment solutions for B2C and B2B businesses spanning across retail, fashion, lifestyle, FMCG, online marketplaces, and autoindustries. It also provides integrated packaging, logistics, and returnable solutions to automobile, farm equipment, and heavy engineering businesses. | $3M | Debt Financing | Jun 04, 2021 |  |
| Fusion Finance | Fusion is head quartered in New Delhi and is operational in the less penetrated North Central part of India (Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana). The company started its Greenfield operations in January 2010 and further augmented it by acquiring the microfinance division Aajeevika (a not for profit body operating inDelhi). At the time of acquisition Aajeevika had a base of 1280 members with a loan book of Rs 6.3 million. | $12.2M | Debt Financing | May 17, 2021 |  |

10 of 14 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Vivriti Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/vivriti-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Arthmate](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arthmate) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [British International Investment](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cdc-group) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Grow Money Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/eclear-leasing-finance) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Hinduja Group](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hinduja-group) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [IIFL Wealth Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/iifl-wealth-asset-management) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Northern Arc

VC Fund · Chennai, India

Northern Arc Capital is a non-banking finance company that provides access to debt for under-served investors and businesses. Northern Arc Capita connects originators so that they may deepen their presence and provide access to financial services to millions of under-served households. Northern Arc Capital formerly Known as IFMR Capital.

5 contacts available at Northern Arc.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bama Balakrishnan | COO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bama-balakrishnan-2ff1 |
| Kshama Fernandes | Chairperson | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kshama-fernandes |
| Pardhasaradhi R | Chief Risk Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pardhasaradhi-r |
| Ashish Mehrotra | MD and CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ashish-mehrotra-fcc8 |
| Salil G Nair | Chief Technology & Information Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/salil-g-nair |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [ENISA](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/enisa-2) — VC Fund
- [Development Bank of Wales](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/development-bank-of-wales) — VC Fund
- [The FSE Group](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/finance-south-east) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Bama Balakrishnan invest in?

Bama Balakrishnan invests primarily in Financial Services, FinTech and Finance startups, most often at Debt Financing stage. Most of the 14 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in India. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Bama Balakrishnan last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Bama Balakrishnan closed in Jul 2022. Shizune tracks 14 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co