Global private equity firm, Warburg Pincus LLC, has entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)-lending firm, Vistaar Finance. While the exact stake that the New York-based firm is going to acquire was not mentioned in the statement released by the company, it was shared that Kotak Investment Banking is going to be the exclusive financial advisor for this deal. Some of the existing Investors who hold a stake in the Bengaluru-based NBFC include WestBridge Capital, Elevar Equity, Omidyar Network India and Saama Capital. Acknowledging this development, Brahmanand Hegde, Executive Vice Chairman of Vistaar Finance, said, “We are excited to partner with Warburg Pincus and leverage the firm’s deep experience of investing in the financial services sector in India. Their investment is a testimony to the strong foundation we have built at Vistaar. We look forward to working with Warburg Pincus to help drive Vistaar’s vision of being a catalyst, enabling the underserved segment to achieve economic independence and social well-being.” Vistaar Finance was founded in 2010 by Brahmanand Hegde and Ramakrishna Nishtala. In all, it claims to manage assets under management of over Rs 2,600 crore to MSMEs across 12 states and 205 branches. The MSME sector is an important component of the Indian economy. It contributes about 30 per cent to India’s GDP, and 45 per cent to India’s exports and is also the second largest employer of workforce after agriculture, as per data shared by the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Ministry. “We believe micro-enterprises in semi-urban and rural India are underserved by formal sources of credit and we believe Vistaar has the potential to fulfill that need gap and be a driver for broad-based growth in those regions and communities,” said, Narendra Ostawal, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus.