Koye Pharma raises Rs. 30 crores debt from BlackSoil Capital

Leading branded pharmaceutical company, Koye Pharma, has raised Rs. 30 crores in debt from Mumbai based NBFC - BlackSoil Capital. The company will primarily use the funds to strengthen its position in the domestic formulation market and for fueling its growth led working capital requirements.

Speaking on the debt raise, Ravindra Shenoy, Founder & Director, Koye Pharma said, “We are pleased to partner with an institution of the calibre of BlackSoil and strongly believe this association will further our long term aspirations and aid our continuous pursuit of a strong growth trajectory with enhanced focus on profitability.”  

Founded in 2013, by industry veterans Preetish Toraskar & Ravindra Shenoy with over two decades of experience each in transnational leading pharmaceutical companies like Lupin, Alkem, Novartis, Mylan, Aurobindo and Cipla.

Koye Pharma is one of the fastest growing mid-sized pharmaceutical companies offering branded pharmaceutical products across therapeutic segments including womens healthcare, respiratory care, primary care, diabetes care and consumer healthcare. The company has a pan India presence and robust distribution network covering over 1.4 lakhs retail pharmacies. It has grown at a CAGR of 42% over 4 years. The Mumbai based firm is backed by multi-stage investors Sequoia & PremjiInvest and raised significant  growth equity capital in the past 5 years. 

“Despite the changing regulation & prevailing market condition, the company has shown resilient revenue growth with work towards profitability on the back of strong network and nationwide presence, solid management team, differentiated fast growing brands and focus on niche therapeutic segments including consumer health & wellness ” said Ankur Bansal, Director, BlackSoil Capital Private Limited.

Blacksoil’s alternative credit platform has successfully concluded more than ~45 transactions to VC backed growth companies so far in the past 4 years and deployed more than 460 crores.

About Koye Pharma

Koye is a speciality pharma company which is focused on the Indian Pharmaceutical market with operations across the length and breadth of the country. It employs more than 400 qualified ambassadors who meet up more than 50000 doctors across the country every month. Koye strives to go the extra mile – to anticipate the needs of the people and provide care that exceeds expectations. Koye is set to grow widely, working towards a healthier and happier world. It is committed to heal, cure and provide general well being and happiness.

About BlackSoil

Launched in 2016 byM P Bansal and Ankur Bansal, BlackSoil is a new-age venture debt platform also focused on structured and real estate debt. Backed by family offices, Blacksoil investments have been sector agnostic as they have developed expertise in multiple domains such as Financial Services / Fintech, E-Commerce, SaaS, Logistics / Mobility, Healthcare, Consumer, travel, Industrial services, Real Estate, & many more. Some of their key investments have been in category leaders such as Oyo Rooms, EarlySalary, Chumbak, Lets Transport,Vogo, Rentomojo amongst others. BlackSoil has disbursed over INR 1600 Cr across 90+ deals in 4 years.

Bullish in the venture debt space, BlackSoil Capital NBFC raises INR 25 Cr via NCD route

Third NCD issue the company has done this calendar year taking the total NCDs raised since January till date to INR 75 Cr from over 100+ investors

Blacksoil which runs a new age credit platform focused primarily on venture debt as well as structured and real estate debt continues to demonstrate its ability to raise debt capital even in turbulent times. Structured as an NBFC, BlackSoil Capital is one of the first venture debt platforms in India which has been raising NCDs for deployment in the venture debt market at a group level.  They have raised INR25 Cr from 60+ investors through private placement of Non-convertible Debentures (NCDs), issued for a tenor of 3 years despite the backdrop of the pandemic and tight liquidity conditions in local credit markets especially for NBFC segment. This is the third NCD issue the company has done this calendar year taking the total NCDs raised since January till date to INR 75 Cr from over 100+ investors. Since inception 4 years ago, BlackSoil has raised ~INR 235 Cr across 13 NCD series from over 150 HNI families.

BlackSoil, like most of the economy, had a slowdown during the initial months of lockdown and they took a couple of months to tweak their  strategy in the face of uncertainty. However as the economy has started recovering, they have also become more aggressive in terms of evaluating more opportunities. Their focus is now on sectors that they expect will rebound faster in the post Covid era such as healthcare, SaaS, logistics, edtech, Agri among others. Three metrics still remain key to their investment thesis- cash flows of companies, robust business models backed by attractive unit economics and the visibility of raising further funds.

“This is a huge validation of the robustness of our business model and our governance standards. The subscription has been received from several high net-worth families & corporates. This highlights strong investor confidence in our NBFC and that our investor base appreciates the critical role we are currently performing by providing innovative debt solutions to growth companies, SMEs and startups.”, said Ankur Bansal, Director & Co-Founder of BlackSoil.

About BlackSoil

Launched in 2016 byM P Bansal and Ankur Bansal, BlackSoil is a new-age venture debt platform also focused on structured and real estate debt. Backed by family offices, Blacksoil investments have been sector agnostic as they have developed expertise in multiple domains such as Financial Services / Fintech, E-Commerce, SaaS, Logistics / Mobility, Healthcare, Consumer, travel, Industrial services, Real Estate, & many more. Some of their key investments have been in category leaders such as Oyo Rooms, EarlySalary, Chumbak, Lets Transport,Vogo, Rentomojo amongst others. BlackSoil has disbursed over INR 1600 Cr across 90+ deals in 4 years.

Fintech Platform Rubique Raises Another Round of Funding from Japan's Recruit Group and Russia's Emery Capital

Breaking new grounds in the formal finance sector through innovative and dynamic use of technology, Rubique Technologies PVT LTD, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has raised an undisclosed amount funding led by Japan’s Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital. The funding round saw participation from Blacksoil & existing investor Kalaari Capital. The funds from this round will enable Rubique to further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities. The company also aims to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and reach out to underserved micro enterprises.

Established in the year 2014, Rubique has demonstrated how frugal innovation, propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional lending space, can simplify complex financial procedures to fulfil every financial aspiration in the simplest, shortest and speediest way possible. Since its inception the company has already facilitated loan disbursement worth approximately Rs. 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups through its platform.

The involvement of Recruit Group and Emery Capital, both having an international expertise in facilitating adoption of newer technologies across sectors and geographies, as well as its existing investors, underlines the trust that Rubique has generated in the global market.

Speaking on the announcement, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique said, “The success of the latest funding round is a strong indication of the trust our investors have in our vision, our technology-thinking of financial services as well as in our strong focus on robust unit economics model. We have managed to successfully stand out in the fintech space as an innovator par excellence and one of the genuine success stories of the domain through our unique asset light business model. With the domain expertise our investors bring on-board, we look forward to leveraging their insights as we build a leading platform for digital lending in India. We would also like to thank our existing investors for continuing to support us in our growth journey.”

Rubique claims to have recently closed 200K customers and have generated revenue of around $7.2 Mn (INR 47 Cr), clocking a revenue of around 3.5 Cr month on month. With a consistent growth, Rubique has been unit economics positive at the transactional level and will be aiming to breakeven in 2019 & going for Rs. 100 crores revenue by 2021.

The startup had earlier raised $3 million from Kalaari Capital and Apis Partners, in June last year, which was a bridge round. Prior to that, it has raised $3 million in Series A from YourNest Angel Fund, Kalaari and Globevestor. Rubique has raised over $10 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase data.

Speaking on the fresh fund raise, Ivan Savelyev from Emery Capital said, “Rubique’s unique business model and technology thinking has an impressive ability to hit the ground running to build a financially strong nation with easy access to credit to all sectors of the society – Businesses and Millennials. We believe that the deployment of technology to develop scalable and accessible financial services platforms, incorporating big data analytics and machine learning, will be critical to any lending business serving the underbanked and underserved customers in India. We are committed to supporting Rubique on its journey to become a leading fintech player in India and also help and share our experience with similar models in other continents & explore synergies to work with them”

With the world constantly innovating, the advanced technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system. The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile. This offers manifold advantages in terms of higher approval rates, better customer satisfaction and improved sourcing to its financial partners.

Eying the future growth of the company, Rubique envisions becoming the largest online financial matchmaking platform in India and aiming for entire ecosystem growth including customers, financial institutions & influencers. With focus on maintaining its model asset-light, Rubique is planning to invest in Data science & leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions.

“Apart from this round we are also in the final stages of closing another tranche’ of funding, to be led by couple of marquee investors. We are excited about our next phase of growth and will continue to develop superior technology products for the ecosystem players thereby aiming to bring a symbiotic relationship between banks and technology, bridge India’s credit gap.” Jeet further added.

Founded in 1960, the Recruit Group creates and provides platforms that connect companies and consumers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Group offers a wide range of services in a variety of areas including human resources, education, housing and real estate, bridal, travel, automobiles, dining and beauty. The Group has more than 45,000 employees and operates in more than 60 countries. Earlier this year, Mumbai-Sunnyvale based CleverTap, a mobile app analytics startup, has raised an undisclosed sum from Recruit Group.

Speaking about Emery Capital, it is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that backs visionary entrepreneurs around the globe. Our mission is working alongside entrepreneurs to give birth to new technologies and to grow those technologies into amazing, enduring companies.

Fintech Platform Rubique Raises Another Round of Funding from Japan's Recruit Group and Russia's Emery Capital

Breaking new grounds in the formal finance sector through innovative and dynamic use of technology, Rubique Technologies PVT LTD, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has raised an undisclosed amount funding led by Japan’s Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital. The funding round saw participation from Blacksoil & existing investor Kalaari Capital. The funds from this round will enable Rubique to further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities. The company also aims to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and reach out to underserved micro enterprises.

Established in the year 2014, Rubique has demonstrated how frugal innovation, propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional lending space, can simplify complex financial procedures to fulfil every financial aspiration in the simplest, shortest and speediest way possible. Since its inception the company has already facilitated loan disbursement worth approximately Rs. 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups through its platform.

The involvement of Recruit Group and Emery Capital, both having an international expertise in facilitating adoption of newer technologies across sectors and geographies, as well as its existing investors, underlines the trust that Rubique has generated in the global market.

Speaking on the announcement, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique said, “The success of the latest funding round is a strong indication of the trust our investors have in our vision, our technology-thinking of financial services as well as in our strong focus on robust unit economics model. We have managed to successfully stand out in the fintech space as an innovator par excellence and one of the genuine success stories of the domain through our unique asset light business model. With the domain expertise our investors bring on-board, we look forward to leveraging their insights as we build a leading platform for digital lending in India. We would also like to thank our existing investors for continuing to support us in our growth journey.”

Rubique claims to have recently closed 200K customers and have generated revenue of around $7.2 Mn (INR 47 Cr), clocking a revenue of around 3.5 Cr month on month. With a consistent growth, Rubique has been unit economics positive at the transactional level and will be aiming to breakeven in 2019 & going for Rs. 100 crores revenue by 2021.

The startup had earlier raised $3 million from Kalaari Capital and Apis Partners, in June last year, which was a bridge round. Prior to that, it has raised $3 million in Series A from YourNest Angel Fund, Kalaari and Globevestor. Rubique has raised over $10 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase data.

Speaking on the fresh fund raise, Ivan Savelyev from Emery Capital said, “Rubique’s unique business model and technology thinking has an impressive ability to hit the ground running to build a financially strong nation with easy access to credit to all sectors of the society – Businesses and Millennials. We believe that the deployment of technology to develop scalable and accessible financial services platforms, incorporating big data analytics and machine learning, will be critical to any lending business serving the underbanked and underserved customers in India. We are committed to supporting Rubique on its journey to become a leading fintech player in India and also help and share our experience with similar models in other continents & explore synergies to work with them”

With the world constantly innovating, the advanced technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system. The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile. This offers manifold advantages in terms of higher approval rates, better customer satisfaction and improved sourcing to its financial partners.

Eying the future growth of the company, Rubique envisions becoming the largest online financial matchmaking platform in India and aiming for entire ecosystem growth including customers, financial institutions & influencers. With focus on maintaining its model asset-light, Rubique is planning to invest in Data science & leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions.

“Apart from this round we are also in the final stages of closing another tranche’ of funding, to be led by couple of marquee investors. We are excited about our next phase of growth and will continue to develop superior technology products for the ecosystem players thereby aiming to bring a symbiotic relationship between banks and technology, bridge India’s credit gap.” Jeet further added.

Founded in 1960, the Recruit Group creates and provides platforms that connect companies and consumers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Group offers a wide range of services in a variety of areas including human resources, education, housing and real estate, bridal, travel, automobiles, dining and beauty. The Group has more than 45,000 employees and operates in more than 60 countries. Earlier this year, Mumbai-Sunnyvale based CleverTap, a mobile app analytics startup, has raised an undisclosed sum from Recruit Group.

Speaking about Emery Capital, it is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that backs visionary entrepreneurs around the globe. Our mission is working alongside entrepreneurs to give birth to new technologies and to grow those technologies into amazing, enduring companies.

BlackSoil Capital Closes Its First Venture Debt Deal of ₹15 Cr with ‘nearbuy’

Indian local commerce platform nearbuy, has raised venture debt of ₹15 crore from BlackSoil Capital Private limited. Featuring hyper local offers in segments like food & beverage, spa, salons, wellness & getaways, nearbuy allows customers to discover the best things to do around them.

nearbuy is backed by the Venture Capital firm, Sequoia Capital with Groupon US as a minority shareholder. Post management buyout in August 2015, wherein Sequoia had invested $17 million, this is the first debt transaction for nearbuy. The Gurgaon based startup aims at utilizing the capital for investing in customer and merchant technology.

In the past 12 months nearbuy has expanded its presence to 33 cities across 10+ categories generating over 500,000 footfalls for offline merchants per month.

BlackSoil Capital Pvt. Ltd. is an RBI registered NBFC that specializes in Real Estate and Venture Debt amongst other segments. The NBFC is promoted by Mr. Shashi Kiran Shetty, CMD of US$700Mn AllCargo logistics, Mr. Gnanesh Gala, Managing Director of US$400Mn Navneet Education Ltd and renowned Mumbai based realty expert Mr. Virendra Gala.

Director of the NBFC Mr. Mohinder Pal Bansal said “Venture Debt concept is growing rapidly in India and has a huge potential considering the evolving Startup Indian industry. BlackSoil Capital is looking forward to partner with Startups with strong and sustainable business models like nearbuy who are enjoying attractive unit economics and customer traction.”

Ankur Warikoo, Founder & CEO nearbuy stated, “We are delighted to have partnered with BlackSoil Capital. With this financing, nearbuy will focus on core technology for customers and merchants to further cement our market leadership position in India.”

“We are confident that this venture debt from BlackSoil will help us accomplish our goals more efficiently. BlackSoil was able to tailor a financing structure that met our business needs” quoted Mr. Sumeet Kapur, CFO, nearbuy.