Blackbuck raises Rs50 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital

Mumbai: Online freight aggregator Blackbuck (Zinka Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd) has raised Rs50 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital.

Blackbuck will use the capital for expansion of its service offerings. “The funds will get ploughed into the growth of the organization, which is typically around people, processes and product. We plan to penetrate deeper... and expand our offering to other services,” said Rajesh Yabaji, co-founder and chief executive at Blackbuck, adding that the firm looked at venture debt as a means to diversify its sources of funding.

“For us it was about trying out different sources of capital. At different phases, access to different sources of capital has opened up for us. Venture debt is one of the things we wanted to try. Innoven had been in touch with us for the past one-and-a-half years. They are an excellent team of skilled people who are entrepreneur friendly and understand the business and related challenges for new-age companies,” Yabaji said.

In March, Blackbuck raised $70 million in equity funding from US-based VC firm Sands Capital and World Bank arm International Finance Corp., existing investors Accel Partners and Flipkart Ltd. The Blackbuck transaction along with other marquee deals such as a Rs100 crore loan to online travel agency Yatra Inc., and Ace Turtle, an omnichannel partner for brands and retailers in India and South-east Asia, saw Innoven Capital disburse a total of $26 million across all loans in the second quarter of the financial year.

“We are seeing strong interest from start-ups to explore venture debt as a means of financing. Given our Asian footprint across India, South-east Asia and recently, China, we are able to offer a unique value proposition to support Indian companies which have global aspirations. Our combination of on-shore/off-shore funding helps such companies optimize their funding mix & costs,” said Ashish Sharma, chief executive at InnoVen Capital India.

As of end September, InnoVen Capital has cumulatively funded venture debt worth over $270 million in more than 125 innovative tech start-ups across India and South-east Asia.

Innoven’s portfolio companies include Yatra, Oyo Rooms, Swiggy, Byju’s, Nestaway, Pepperfry, Prizm Payments, Shaadi.com, Shopclues, Myntra, Freecharge, Manthan Software, Firstcry, Practo, Capillary Technologies in India, and 123RF, RedDoorz, M17 Entertainment, Oway, Fave, Guavapass and Pomelo in South-east Asia.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.