BackUnicorn India eyes first close of ₹200 crore for debt fund
Unicorn India is raising the debt fund from a mix of institutional investors, family offices and high net-worth individuals, says founder Anil Joshi
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Mumbai: Early-stage venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures expects to hit the first close of its maiden venture debt fund at ₹ 200 crore by the end of July, a senior executive said.
Mumbai-based Unicorn India is looking to raise ₹ 600 crore for the debt fund. Founded in 2016 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar, the firm VC firm had launched its maiden fund last November.
“We are looking at a ticket size of ₹ 5-30 crore, and will target firms that have raised Series A and C rounds. We are also keen to co-invest in VC-funded firms, especially ones with strong cash flows. We are bullish on business to business, software as a service, enterprise solution and fintech," said Joshi, managing partner, Unicorn India Ventures.
Venture debt is substantially different from regular corporate lending, which is generally asset-backed and provided to profit-making firms. Unicorn India is raising the debt fund from a mix of institutional investors, family offices and high net-worth individuals, said Joshi. It is targeting a second close at ₹ 350 crore.
Unicorn India has so far exhausted half of the ₹ 100-crore venture capital fund it had raised last year, and aims to launch its second fund of ₹ 400 crore by next year.
“So far, we have invested in 18 companies and have deployed 50% of the fund. We will do a few more investments and keep rest of the money for follow on rounds. We will aim to launch a tech-focused equity fund in 2019. We will either launch a single fund of ₹ 400 crore or we would raise two funds separately for ₹ 00 crore and ₹ 00 crore," said Joshi.
The fund has made investments in startups, including micro-lending platform SmartCoin, rental marketplace GrabOnRent, digital-marketing-focused artificial intelligence start-up Boxx.ai, pharmaceutical-sector-focused software-as-a-service company Pharmarack, among others.
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