Stride Ventures Floats Fourth Fund With $300 Mn Target Corpus

Venture debt firm Stride Ventures has launched its fourth fund  with a target corpus of $300 Mn (around INR 2,545 Cr), marking its largest domestic fund so far.

The fourth fund is aimed at fuelling startup’s growth across different sectors by providing them financial assistance. 

Besides, Stride Ventures also claims to have surpassed a $1 Bn commitment for its first venture debt growth fund. 

“Crossing the $1 Bn milestone is a testament to the strength of India’s startup ecosystem and the growing recognition of venture debt as a powerful enabler. At Stride, we remain committed to empowering entrepreneurs with innovative solutions that drive sustainable growth,” said Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, founder and managing partner at Stride Ventures.

The fund’s ticket size in some investments also exceeded the INR 100 Cr such as in BlueStone, Upstox, Moneyview, Ather, Pharmeasy, Infra.Market, Battery Smart, Moove, Ola Electric, and Lohum, the firm said. 

Recently, a Bengaluru-based edtech startup Vedantu secured INR 19.25 Cr ($2.4 Mn) in a mix of debt and equity financing from Stride Ventures Debt Fund II.

Stride Ventures announced the final closure of its Stride Ventures India Fund III at $165 Mn in May. The fund was focussed at backing startups across consumer brands, financial services and cleantech sectors.

The Fund III portfolio comprises names like BlueStone, Moneyview, Moove, Foxtale, CureSkin, NewMe, and Nat Habit, just to name a few.  

The New Delhi-based venture debt firm backed about 46 startups in the first half (H1) of 2024. Some of its most notable investments included participation in LendingKart’s INR 100 Cr round, backing IPO-bound electric vehicle (EV) makers Ola Electric and Ather Energy, among others. 

Founded by Gandhi in 2019, Stride claims to have a portfolio of more than 140 startups under its belt, spanning sectors such as fintech, agritech, B2B SaaS, and mobility.