Stride Ventures Closes $200 Mn Fund To Back 60-70 Startups

Venture debt firm Stride Ventures has closed its second fund–Stride Ventures India Fund II with a corpus of $200 Mn. 

The fund will write off cheques between $4 Mn–$5 Mn to 60-70 startups over a period of four years.

So far, the sector-agnostic fund has backed startups working in diverse sectors including consumer, fintech, agritech, B2B commerce, healthtech, B2B SaaS, mobility and energy solutions. 

The fund’s portfolio includes Yubi (formerly known as CredAvenue), MyGlamm, Zepto, BluSmart, Uni, Upstox, WayCool, MensaBrands, MediBuddy, Wiz Freight, Perfios, Moneyview, VideoVerse, Chalo and Groyyo, amongst others.

The fund has received commitments from banks, marquee family offices, corporate companies, sovereign funds, private equity funds, insurance firms, and high-net individuals.

“Stride Ventures has already committed a chunk of the fund to industry-leading startups and our goal is to continue being a preferred lender while developing innovative alternate financing solutions for founders. Aligned to our mission we have effectively enabled them to scale their businesses whilst parallelly giving industry best returns to our investors,” said, Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, founder and managing partner of Stride Ventures.  

Set up in 2019, the Delhi-based venture debt company is led by Gandhi and Abhinav Suri. Both the partners hold experience in the banking industry. Some of the companies that they worked for include Citi, ANZ, IDFC, Kotak Bank, and Yes Bank.

“The current economic environment has made thriving businesses more amenable to debt transactions than ever before. The success of our second fund is a testament to this and with the continual support of our investors, we are certain that we will further contribute to accelerating the growth of the ecosystem,” said Apoorva Sharma, partner at Stride Ventures.

Stride claims to have infused over INR 1600 Cr in more than 70 companies across consumer, fintech, agritech, B2B commerce, healthtech, B2B SaaS, mobility and energy solutions.

In August 2021, Stride made the first closure of its second fund after raising INR 550 Cr. It also had a greenshoe option of INR 875 Cr. 

According to an Inc42 analysis, 78 venture capital funds were launched in the first half of 2022. These funds together raised over $12 Bn in the corresponding period.  

Some of the prominent VC funds are Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, Elevation Capital, and Accel.

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