Trifecta Capital deploys Rs 400 cr from first late-stage venture fund

By Joseph Rai

  • 20 Oct 2021
Credit: 123RF.com

Venture debt firm Trifecta Capital on Wednesday said that it has already deployed Rs 400 crore across four companies from its late-stage venture fund that marked the first close just less than three months ago.

Trifecta Leaders Fund I has so far invested in travel app ixigo, beauty brand MyGlamm, epharmacy startup PharmEasy, and social commerce firm Meesho, said Trifecta Capital in a statement.

"Be it democratizing access or broadening choice for the next billion users, our companies are contributing strongly to the vibrant, tech-powered ecosystem in the country," said Lavanya Ashok, partner, Trifecta Capital.

Trifecta Capital had marked the first close of its late-stage venture fund in late July with commitments of over Rs 1,000 crore ($134.5 million). The first close had come less than four months after the firm said it is planning to launch the vehicle with a target corpus of Rs 1,500 crore ($200 million).

Trifecta Leaders Fund I will invest in category-leading startups, selected predominantly from Trifecta Capital’s portfolio across venture debt funds. It will also invest in businesses with which it has deep relationships with founders and investors.

Trifecta Leaders Fund I will typically invest $15-30 million each in around 10 companies for minority stakes through a combination of primary and secondary transactions.

Earlier in March, Trifecta Capital had also announced the final close of its main second fund at Rs 1,025 crore (around $140 million), slightly higher than the target of Rs 1,000 crore that included a greenshoe option of Rs 250 crore.

Trifecta Capital has invested in over 70 companies across two venture debt funds. It has backed unicorns and soonicorns including Bigbasket, Cars24, Vedantu, Infra.Market, ShareChat, and Dailyhunt.  

Other investments include Practo, UrbanCompany, CarDekho, Blackbuck, Ninjacart, NoBroker, Kreditbee, Dehaat, Turtlemint, Livspace and BharatPe.

Venture debt firms' focus on late-stage funding points to the maturity of the venture debt market that only a few years back was still referred to as being nascent in India, according to a VCCircle analysis recently.