Carlyle invests in Jerry Rao's housing venture

Bengaluru : Bangalore August 26, 2011, 0:51 IST:Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group on Thursday announced it will invest $26 million in Value & Budget Housing Corporation (VBHC), a budget housing project — Value & Budget Housing Corporation — being put up by technology entrepreneur Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao.

The capital, which will be used to fund the building of these new homes, comes from FCG IX, a part of Carlyle Asia Growth Partners IV (CAGP IV), a $1.04 billion sector-agnostic growth capital fund. Existing investors in VBHC have also committed additional capital alongside Carlyle.

The transaction has been closed. VBHC had earlier raised funds from HDFC and India Financial Inclusion Fund advised by Caspian Advisors.

VBHC was co-founded by Jaithirth Rao and P S Jayakumar with a vision to build 1 million affordable entry-level homes over a period of 10 years across urban India. Over 1,000 units have been sold in the last 12 months and the sale of another 900 units will start next month. VBHC is setting up an expansive network of integrated housing projects across the country that will apply the latest industrial engineering and