InnoVen Capital India has invested in thirteen startups across India, including in the foodtech sector. The companies in which InnoVen has invested in include food ordering and delivery start-up Swiggy, furniture rental start-up Furlenco and online insurance provider Coverfox. Backed by Singapore’s state – run investment arm Temasek Holdings Pvt. Ltd, InnoVen Capital has also invested in Universal Sportsbiz, XpressBees, Surewaves, K12 Techno Services, Koye Pharma, Capillary Technologies, Unbxd, Zelo, Flyrobe and Chai Point. “There are many reasons why 2017 will be better than 2016 from a venture debt perspective. We’ve funded more than 90 companies. Hence, there is that much more talk about venture debt and more use cases and broader acceptance”, said Vinod Murali, managing director (MD) of InnoVen Capital India. Read more on Investments
InnoVen has invested a total of Rs. 110 crores (US $ 17 million) in all the above mentioned companies. It is not known how much it invested individually in each company except for Swiggy in which it invested US $5 million. InnoVen had invested about Rs. 400 crores in 35 Indian start-ups in 2016. This is 48% more than it invested in all the Indian Startups during 2015. This increase in venture debt is amidst VC firms becoming increasingly cautious about their bets. Among the thirty five investments made by InnoVen in 2016, twenty six were new ones. This made InnoVen the most active fund of 2016. According to Murali, start-ups are increasingly warming up to venture debt to not only meet working capital needs but also partially fund acquisitions. “In 2017, there will be more of a focus on business to business start-ups. There are areas which are evolving, say around the artificial intelligence and virtual reality, but we are still watching which all companies are breaking out and getting traction. We also focus on the rental piece”, Murali said.
Venture Capital debt providers provide a debt (loan) of anywhere between Rs. 5 crores to Rs. 25 crores at 15 to 17% interest rate. They fund a startup only if it has managed to secure funds atleast once from a VC firm. InnoVen usually invests between Rs. 3.25 crores to Rs. 5 crores on Indian startups. But now (during 2017) it is looking to step up its investments and invest anywhere between Rs. 50 crores to Rs. 60 crores on an Indian startup. It also plans to invest on startups which have not managed to raise funds from VC firms. “We have also started doing non-venture backed deals for new age businesses that have chosen not to take money from venture capital firms. It wasn’t core to our business model. We wanted to make sure that our core competency is being taken care of and we do more of them (funding venture capital-backed start-ups). But, if there are companies in a model or segment which is not very easy to replicate and we find them doing a good job, we are up for it”, Murali said. One such company which InnoVen plans to invest on is the mobile marketing platform, Affle. Read more on Startup News
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