India based debt round funding venture capital firm, Stride Ventures on Thursday said, “It has raised Rs 85 crore from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).”
Stride Ventures in its issued statement said, “The fund will strengthen the development of Stride’s maiden fund – Stride Venture India Debt Fund I. Which market its first close in November 2019, and is in the last stages of its final close.”
“The initial commitments for the fund came from HNIs and family-owned business groups, both domestic and overseas, as well as from institutional investors. The fund is expected to make the final close by the end of the year,” Statement added.
Speaking on the fundraise, Ishpreet Gandhi, Founder and Managing Partner of Stride Ventures, said, “SIDBI’s commitment to the fund corroborates Stride’s strong performance as well as the immense growth potential of the asset class. Despite the challenges brought upon by the pandemic, we have been extremely active in deploying capital and have completed 7 deals during this period. Further, we have seen no delinquencies or delays in our portfolio. We are excited to partner with SIDBI as we look to maintain this momentum and finish the year strongly.”
“We are seeing good revenue momentum in growth stage start-ups going beyond pre-covid levels thereby increasing the need for working capital which remains the core thesis of our fund. SIDBI’s commitment will help us accelerate our support to these exciting businesses to achieve their potential,” Abhinav Suri, Managing Partner – Stride Ventures added.
Stride recently announced investments in SUGAR, a rapidly growing color cosmetics brand, and Miko, a leading robotics company. Other investments from the fund include Stellapps, HomeLane, Ziploan, LetsTransport, Miko.