Trifecta Raises $30 Mn For Its Venture Fund; Plans To Invest In 10-12 Startups In One Year

Venture fund, Trifecta Capital Advisors LLP, has achieved its first close in four months with around $30 Mn capital in its debut fund. With this, the specialty debt-financing venture will start investing in companies, while it reaches to the final corpus of $76 Mn (Rs 500 crore).

Speaking to Inc42, Rahul Khanna, managing partner at Trifecta Capital, said,

We have achieved and filed first close with SEBI (Security and Exchange Board in India). We should be able to hit our target investment corpus in next 6-9 months.

According to the regulations laid by SEBI, a venture fund could not invest in the fund, until it achieves the first close of the target fund. And these funds are generated in various stages or closures. The first closure is considered after the venture fund generates at least 25%, 30% or in some cases 50% of the target amount. Furthermore, any venture fund cannot invest the money raised before achieving first close. Trifecta has a fund size of $45 Mn(INR 300 Cr.) and green shoe options to raise $30Mn (INR 200 Cr.), without going back to SEBI.

He added, “Going forward, we will start deploying capital on companies, while raising more fund to hit our corpus of $76 Mn (INR 500 Cr.).” The venture fund has identified areas of investment namely consumer services & products, healthcare services, enterprise technology & software and B2B Services like logistics and payments.

Trifecta plans to make some 10-12 investments in one year. Each ranging from $700k to $3.8 Mn and will depend on the cash flows and nature of the business.

This venture fund works differently from other funds, since financed by insurance companies (Life and General), development finance institutions, foundations, corporate treasuries and family offices. It is also structured as a combination of a loan along with limited equity investment rights (warrants).

Rahul started Trifecta venture fund in 2014 along with Nilesh Kothari, who previously was serving as heading the ventures and acquisitions division at Accenture.

Until recently, Rahul was heading Canaan Partners India in the role of Managing Director, which invested in BillDesk, Games2Win, Equitas, Naaptol, LoyltyRewardz and AdNear. He also made a few investments in his personal capacity in startups like MediAssist, CarTrade.com, Zopper and Wooplr.

Trifecta is country’s first Venture Debt Fund to be a SEBI registered Venture Debt Fund.

Over time, the Trifecta Capital platform will offer mezzanine financing, acquisition financing, bridge financing and Pre-IPO financing. “Going forward, in the next ten years, we aim to have a billion dollars fund under management across different products, all focused on structured debt to the new economy,” Rahul added.