Venture debt firm Trifecta Capital Advisors LLP plans to invest up to Rs 175 crore ($26 million) over the next one year after lending money to three startups recently, a top executive told VCCircle.
Trifecta, which made its first close of Rs 200 crore for its maiden fund in September, plans to invest in three to four companies every quarter, managing partner Nilesh Kothari said. The firm has a pipeline of two dozen firms, he added.
The fund provides early-stage debt capital to Indian companies, mainly in the technology sector. It prices its debt at 15 per cent to 17 per cent. The firm also looks to acquire a stake in companies through cashless warrants or partly paid-up shares.
“We typically invest between Rs 6 crore and Rs 15 crore across each deal,†said Kothari.
Out of its maiden fund, which has a targeted corpus of Rs 500 crore, the firm has invested a total of Rs 36 crore in three startups. These firms are Hyderabad-based kidney care clinic chain NephroPlus, express surface logistics firm Rivigo and messaging platform HelpChat.
NephroPlus earlier raised about $14.2 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and International Finance Corp. Rivigo raised about $10 million in May from multi-stage investment firm SAIF Partners. HelpChat, which was previously branded as Akosha, raised $16 million from Sequoia Capital the same month.
The Economic Times first reported news of the funding in the three startups.
Kothari, who previously worked with Accenture Plc, founded Trifecta along with former Canaan Partners India managing director Khanna. RBL Bank has committed Rs 50 crore to the fund, as its anchor investor.
The only other significant venture debt firm in India is InnoVen Capital India, which is backed by proprietary capital from Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings and operates as a non-banking financial company.
