BlackSoil raises Rs 110 Cr; plans to invest in mid and growth-stage startups

Alternative credit platform BlackSoil announced on Thursday that it has raised Rs 110 crore through its first close for its maiden secured AIR strategy BlackSoil India Credit Fund (BICF).

The fund aims to solve the problem of access to finance for high-growth innovative companies. It plans to raise a total of Rs 350 crore and complete over 30 deals, with an average ticket size of Rs 10-20 crore per investment.

Co-founder Ankur Bansal said, "We are seeing a strong pipeline of startups across technology, healthcare, enterprise, and consumer segments with a need to finance their growing businesses, which will continue to grow in the coming years."

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According to a statement issued by BlackSoil, the funds were raised from family offices and HNIs. The platform will be using the funds to differentiate credit strategy comprising venture and structure debt, and target startups across mid and growth stages.

Unlike other venture debt funds, BlackSoil is an NBFC . VC firms usually raise money from multiple limited partners (LPs) and then return the capital at the end of the fund, and BlackSoil has permanent capital in the form of equity raised from family offices. It is sponsored by family offices including Chairman of AllCargo Logistics Shashi Kiran Shetty, and MD of Navneet Education Ganesh D Gala.

Blacksoil deploys capital and raises further debt on the balance sheet. Once the capital comes back in terms of principal repayments, BlackSoil deploys it again. It's ticket size starts from Rs 1 crore and can go up to Rs 30 crore.

Sector-agnostic BlackSoil has deployed Rs 950 crore in tha last four years, across 70 plus transactions. Some of BlackSoil's portfolio companies include hospitality unicorn OYO Rooms, rental startup Rentomojo, design-led lifestyle brand Chumbak, bike-rental startup Vogo, rental used car retailing platform Spinny, logistics startup LetsTransport and edtech startup iNurture, among others.