Varanium Capital, a global asset management firm, announced the first close of its maiden venture debt fund worth ₹250 crore.
The company aims to provide growth capital of ₹50 lakh to about ₹15 crore, based on the revenue of a target company. It plans to provide the funding through a mix of revenue-based financing and traditional venture debt to up to 100 early-stage to growth start-ups in India.
Varanium Capital manages approximately $1 billion of assets across asset classes, including structured debt and portfolio management services.
Eyeing start-ups, D2C
“Venture Debt fund will provide financial backing to start-ups in sectors such as D2C (Direct-to-consumer), SaaS (Software as a Service), B2B commerce, and fintech which require to scale their operations. With a corpus size of ₹250 crore (including Green Shoe option of ₹50 crore), the fund is well-positioned to provide timely capital injections, enabling start-ups to seize growth opportunities and expand their market reach,” said TS Anantakrishnan, Founder, Varanium Capital.
The fund has been able to attract top-tier domestic and global LPs and has secured an anchor investor and has received commitments from family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and seasoned entrepreneurs including former CEOs and CXOs of banks, it said.
Through its venture capital fund, Varanium has invested equity capital in about 12 start-ups in the fintech sector including Easebuzz, Riskcovry, Finvu, Homeville, deploying nearly half of its ₹140-crore fund launched in 2019.