Venture Debt fund Trifecta Capital has announced a new $200Mn fund that will be used to invest in emerging startups in India. This is the third fund by the VC firm, which is looking to capitalize on the growing startup culture in the company which has caught the eye of every investor in the world.
The fund will have a target corpus of $133Mn(₹ 1000 crore), and a green shoe option of $67Mn (₹500 crore), and will be used to invest in startups from different segments, including SaaS (Software as a Service), D2C (Direct-to-consumer), B2B commerce, Fintech, E-commerce Sellers, etc. Trifecta aims to complete the first close in this calendar year. Moreover, it also aims to close the fund by the end of 2022.
This also comes just months after the firm had announced another ₹1,500 crore fund for late stage startups, looking to invest in pre IPO firms, of which there are a lot in India right now. Paytm, Flipkart, CarTrade, Ola, Ixigo, PolicyBazaar and many others are looking to go public in the coming months, and Trifecta Capital wants to capitalize on that.
It already counts giants like like Big Basket, Pharmeasy, Cars24, Vedantu, Infra.Market, ShareChat, Dailyhunt, UrbanCompany and CarDekho, BharatPe, Blackbuck, Ninjacart, NoBroker, Kreditbee, Dehaat, Turtlemint, Servify, Livspace among its portfolio, which is valued at roughly $33Bn.
However, it also wants to tap into the early stage startups market, and this fund is aimed towards that.
Rahul Khanna, Managing Partner said, “As the pioneering provider of credit to the new economy, we take immense pride in the asset class that we have helped build and institutionalize over the last six years. With this third venture debt fund, we will strengthen our existing investor relationships and selectively add new investors who can add value to our portfolio companies. We aim to further enhance our track record of delivering consistent returns every quarter as well as best-in-class venture debt fund returns to our investors, as we help them participate in some of the most exciting new businesses in India.”
Trifecta is one of the first debt venture firms in India, having been launched in 2015. These firms allow companies to access debt, in lieu of just a small amount of equity, as opposed to the conventional VCs.
During a never seen before golden time in the startup culture, venture capitalists have been investing heavily into new ideas. Today’s announcement is just an extension and an example of that phenomena, and we can expect to hear more news like this in the coming months, especially with so many Indian firms on the edge of the unicorn club.
