India's Stride Ventures hits $74m first close on second fund

The fund was launched in May with a greenshoe option that could see the corpus rise to INR18.7 billion. 

Its predecessor closed on INR3.5 billion last February with commitments from the likes of Small Industries Development Bank of India and domestic family offices. The plan has been to tap a wider LP base for Fund II across Singapore and the Middle East.

“The considerable tailwinds seen in the Indian start-up ecosystem present a perfect opportunity to invest in the potential of venture debt in India,” Ishpreet Gandhi, founder and managing partner at Stride, said in a statement. “With the majority of investors from our maiden fund returning to invest in the new fund, we have had a quicker-than-expected first close.”

Stride, which has historically focused on early-stage start-ups, said it aims to ramp up deployment in late-stage deals in B2B commerce, healthcare, agriculture, financial services, and direct-to-consumer brands with an average ticket size of INR750 million. This is in keeping with a broader trend in India, where a nascent IPO opportunity for pre-profit tech start-ups is boosting late-stage activity.

Stride has disbursed more than INR4 billion in 2021 through 20 investments. Standout portfolio companies include D2C beauty brand MyGlamm, which raised an INR5.3 billion Series C round last month and is expected to file for an IPO within two-and-a-half years.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Credit/Special Situations
• India
• venture debt