StrideOne, a tech-led financial services platform floated by the founders of venture debt firm Stride Ventures, on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 250 crore ($32.25 million) via a mix of debt and equity.
The equity funding was led by early stage venture capital firm Elevar Equity, while the debt was raised from top Indian banks, said StrideOne in a statement.
The six-month old StrideOne, which is an non-banking financial company (NBFC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has crossed assets under management (AUM) of Rs 200 crore already, it added.
StrideOne provides financial solutions to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and supply chain partners of startups. For instance, StrideOne has facilitated personal credit to the transport drivers of a logistics tech startup with digital onboarding and an extremely low turnaround time.
The company was launched in line with the Stride Ventures' aim to innovate credit structures for startups that are looking to grow their businesses, said Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, Founder, StrideOne, in a statement.
Meanwhile, Stride Ventures is raising its second venture debt fund. Last month, VCCircle reported Stride Ventures is set to exceed its target corpus of Rs 1,000 crore for its second fund to raise around Rs 1,600 crore.
The venture debt firm has backed startups such as MyGlamm, Sugar Cosmetics and Mensa Brands.
Abhinav Suri, Co-Founder, StrideOne, said that StrideOne has started with credit products for the supply chain.
"We are investing towards building multiple offerings delivered through our technology platform that will be launched over the course of the year," he added.
Jyotsna Krishnan, Managing Partner, Elevar Equity, noted that StrideOne has a super-efficient profitable distribution model that lends itself to exponential growth.
"The accelerated scale displayed by StrideOne reiterates the massive opportunity waiting to be unlocked in the extended startup ecosystem and we are excited to partner with them to bring it to life," added Krishnan.
In May last year, VCCircle reported that Elevar Equity hit the road to secure commitments for its fifth India-focused fund that sought to raise $120-125 million (Rs 883-920 crore).
In the 2000s the social impact investor had spun out of global nonprofit Unitus, Inc which provides capital to microfinance institutions in developing countries. Its investments include agri-focused NBFC Samunnati and school management services provider Lead.
