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Ashish Gala, Kunal Wadhwa, Anurag Tripathi, cofounders, VentureSoul
Mumbai-based venture debt firm VentureSoul Partners recently announced the first close of its Rs 600 crore ($72.5 million) maiden fund. The firm has raised Rs 146.5 crore or about $17.4 million in this initial phase.
With a target corpus of up to Rs 300 crore and an additional Rs 300 crore greenshoe, the SEBI-registered Category II AIF has so far received commitments from a mix of family offices, corporates, HNIs, professionals, and other eminent investors.
The fund aims to make debt investments in startups at the Series A or beyond stage, with a demonstrated business and revenue model. The sector-agnostic fund will focus on sectors like fintech, B2C, B2B, and SaaS.
Plans to invest in around 20-25 startups
The firm plans to invest in around 20-25 startups, with an average ticket size of Rs 25-30 crore, while the maximum investment per startup will be capped at Rs 60 crore.
Notable anchor investors include pharmaceutical company Micro Labs and corporates such as Kredibee founder E Madhusudan and Omkar Shirhatti of Perfios. Other investors from sectors such as appliances and steel have also contributed to the fund.
“We are sincerely grateful to each and every individual and institution that has backed us, as also those who have been our guiding light in our maiden fund foray. We now intend to augment the scale and size of VentureSoul’s operations by working further with the broader ecosystem – undertaking disciplined deployment as also continuing to reach out wider for our subsequent fund raise round," the founders said.
The repayment period for the debt investments will range from 24 to 36 months, with quarterly repayments.
Who are the founders?
Founded by former HSBC bankers Anurag Tripathi, Ashish Gala, and Kunal Wadhwa, VentureSoul combines over 65 years of collective experience in the banking and credit sectors.
The founders aim to bridge the gap between traditional banking practices and the new-age economy. Their approach blends prudent banking principles with technology-driven credit evaluation, offering differentiated debt product propositions to startups.