Stride Ventures, a venture debt fund firm, has raised up to ₹85 crore from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). The funds received from SIDBI will strengthen the deployment of Stride’s maiden fund - Stride Venture India Debt Fund I, which marked its first close in November 2019 and is in the last stages of its final close.

The fund was set up by Ishpreet Singh Gandhi in July 2019 after receiving regulatory clearance from SEBI. The fund managers Ishpreet Singh Gandhi and Abhinav Suri are ex Bankers, with long-standing corporate lending experience including lending to start-ups. They have previously worked in institutions such as Citi, ANZ, IDFC, Kotak Bank, and YES Bank, holding senior positions across relationship management and Credit.

The initial commitments for the fund came from HNIs and family-owned business groups, both domestic and overseas, as well as from institutional investors. The fund is expected to make the final close by the year-end.

“SIDBI’s commitment to the fund corroborates Stride’s strong performance as well as the immense growth potential of the asset class. In spite of the challenges brought upon by the pandemic, we have been extremely active in deploying capital and have successfully completed 7 deals during this period. Further, we have seen no delinquencies or delays in our portfolio. We are excited to partner with SIDBI as we look to maintain this momentum and finish the year strongly” said Ishpreet Gandhi, Founder and Managing Partner, in a statement.

Stride recently announced investments in SUGAR, a rapidly growing colour cosmetics brand, and Miko, a leading robotics company. Other investments from the fund include Stellapps, HomeLane, Ziploan, LetsTransport, Miko, etc.