Venture debt firm InnoVen Capital invested about Rs 600 crore across 36 companies in 2018, registering a 28% increase in the amount of funding, it said in a statement.
Innoven, which is backed by Singapore state investment firm Temasek, added new companies to its portfolio in 2018. These include executive education firm Eruditus, robotics startup GreyOrange, dockless scooter sharing platform Bounce and news aggregator DailyHunt.
The firm deployed around Rs 250 crore in 15 existing portfolio companies, including online furniture marketplace PepperFry, yogurt brand Epigamia, B2B marketplace for packing materials Bizongo and logistics startup ShadowFax.
Overall, it committed about Rs 700 crore in 2018 across 42 companies, said Ashish Sharma, chief executive officer at InnoVen Capital India. The firm's portfolio companies raised over $3.5 billion of equity capital in the year gone by, he added.
The venture debt firm also said that it will close six more transactions in early 2019.
Around 70% of the total debt funding disbursed by Innoven in 2018 was towards business-to-consumer businesses. The key sectors where it invested include consumer internet, enterprise-tech, logistics, food and healthcare.
Innoven said that the total amount of venture debt it has disbursed since inception is now more than $350 million in nearly 200 transactions across 130 companies. The company has offices in Mumbai, Gurugram, Singapore and Beijing.
Other companies that offer venture debt in India include Trifecta Capital, new entrant Alteria Capital and IntelleGrow.
Venture debt is an important tool of funding for companies as it rarely involves stake dilution by promoters. It also provides companies more time to grow.