VentureSoul Partners Marks First Close Of INR 600 Cr Maiden Fund

Mumbai-based venture debt firm VentureSoul Partners has marked the first close of its INR 600 Cr maiden fund, raising INR 146.5 Cr ($17.4 Mn). 

The SEBI-registered Category II AIF is targeting a corpus of up to INR 300 Cr, with an additional INR 300 Cr in greenshoe options. 

It aims to invest in around 20-25 startups with an average ticket size of INR 25-30 Cr. The maximum amount will be capped INR 60 Cr.

So far, VentureSoul claims to have already secured commitments from a diverse group of investors, including family offices, corporates, high-net-worth individuals and professionals among others. The fund aims to back startups at Series A or later stage, with established business and revenue models, focused on fintech, B2C, B2B and SaaS sectors.

The fund also plans to have differentiated debt proposition for the new age economy clients, where the bankers are planning to bring in banking practices into the fund world by not only evaluating the clients differently, but more importantly by providing differentiated debt product proposition for the new age economy clients, the firm said in a statement..

VentureSoul was founded by three ex-HSBC bankers – Gala, Anurag Tripathi, and Kunal Wadhwa, who bring together over 65 years of experience. Having had the experience of successfully building businesses ground up for various domestic and international organisations, the partners launched VentureSoul to create a value-based enterprise.

The venture debt firm aims to differentiate itself by blending prudent banking principles with new-age credit evaluation technology, adopting a partnership approach towards its portfolio companies, and specialising in providing tailor-made solutions.

“We are sincerely grateful to each and every individual and institution that has backed us, as also those who have been our guiding light in our maiden fund foray. We now intend to augment the scale and size of VentureSoul’s operations by working further with the broader ecosystem – undertaking disciplined deployment as also continuing to reach out wider for our subsequent fund raise rounds,” the founders said in a joint statement.

According to Inc42 data, pure debt funding accounted for approximately 4.3% (or $6.5 Bn) of the total $148.8 Bn funding raised by the Indian startups between 2014 and April 2024. Also, between 2021 and 2023, only 13 debt funds were announced with a total corpus of $1.5 Bn, which was just 4.4% of the around 270+ funds announced with a cumulative corpus of $33.72 Bn.