Chennai, Nov 1 (IANS): City-based non-banking finance company Veritas Finance on Thursday said it has raised Rs 200 crore from a group of investors.

In a statement issued here, the company said it has raised the sum from Norwest Venture Partners along with CDC Group Plc, a development finance institution owned by the UK government and an anchor investor P. Surendra Pai.

Veritas Finance is focussed on lending to Micro, Medium and Small Enterprises (MSME). The fresh funds raised will be used for deployment is the MSME sector.

"Through this round of funding, besides expansion, we will also strengthen our technology which will help us achieve higher productivity and bring down the cost of servicing micro-businesses," Arulmany. D, Managing Director and CEO, Veritas Finance was quoted as saying in the statement.

Veritas Finance has created a loan book of Rs 500 crore since inception in 2015, having a customer base of more than 21,000 present across seven states with over 132 branches backed by 1,125 employees.

India is home to more than 60 million MSMEs who contribute to 45 per cent of the exports and it forms the highest share of employment sector in India, contributing around 69 per cent to it, the company said.