Caspian Debt Gets $20 Mn Investment from US International Development Finance Corp

Caspian Debt on Friday said it has received an investment of USD 20 million (over Rs 150 crore) by US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as long-term debt.

"The new facility, which is a combination of subordinated and senior debt will support Caspian Debt in providing customised, collateral-free loans digitally to professionally managed enterprises operating in high impact sectors in India," a statement said.

These sectors include microfinance, SME finance, affordable housing, affordable healthcare, sustainable agribusiness and education, it added.

Caspian Debt primarily works with first-generation social entrepreneurs, who find it difficult to raise working capital as they run new-age businesses with an asset light model, and have no collateral to offer. The statement noted that many of these companies are well capitalised and are growing rapidly but require more responsive lenders.

Caspian Debt said with this facility, it is also committed to contributing 33 per cent of its investments to women-centric businesses and fulfilling its commitment to DFC's 2X Women's Initiative.

2X has catalysed over USD 2 billion of private sector investment in businesses and funds owned by, led by, or providing a product or service that intentionally empowers women in the developing world.

"Caspian Debt has lent over USD 219 million to over 140 early-stage enterprises contributing to 13 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the last seven years. We are delighted to deepen our relationship with DFC, as our partnership continues to provide much needed firepower to support under-served emerging enterprises and women-centric businesses," Caspian Debt founder and MD S Viswanatha Prasad said.

The funding will focus on promoting disruptive entrepreneurs, who are pushing the envelope for creating sustainable impact, he added. PTI SR

IAN, Caspian Debt Collaborate to Support Early and Growth-stage Innovation in India

In keeping with its commitment to support early- and growth-stage startups, Indian Angel Network, the largest horizontal early- and seed-stage platform in India, has recently signed an MoU with Caspian Debt. The collaboration will build on IAN’s multi-pronged approach to bolster growth prospects for budding startups on the back of capital investment and mentorship along with various growth-stage initiatives.

In addition to supplying capital support, the two entities will jointly conduct various educational events to improve awareness about various funding options and structures available to entrepreneurs and empower early-stage startups across the country. These include, workshops, seminars, open hours among other such events. As part of the MoU, the two parties will also be responsible for organizing knowledge exchange and cross referrals for the IAN and Caspian portfolio companies.

Speaking on the collaboration, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder at IAN commented, “As we enter a brand-new decade, we are resolved to build on our past performance and support an even greater number of Indian startups. Currently, India is home to more than 30 unicorns. Through the concerted efforts of key industry players and the Government, India has the potential to ramp this number up to 50 within the next half-decade. Our partnership with Caspian Impact Investments is a step in this direction and we are quite delighted about it. Together, we aim to realize our shared vision of bolstering the Indian startup ecosystem by extending capital support, mentorship, and strategic guidance to early and growth stage enterprises.”

Avishek Gupta , Investment Director Caspian Debt, added, “ At Caspian Debt, our mission is to enable the growth of enterprises that work towards creating social and/or environmental impact, in a responsible, transparent and sustainable manner. We are delighted to partner with IAN which has done pioneering work in bringing equity capital to young start-ups. In partnership with the IAN, we hope to further Caspian Debt's goal to ensure that no professionally managed start-up goes without debt funding required for scaling. We look forward to a great mutually rewarding partnership and positively influencing the start-up ecosystem of the country.”

Pioneering the concept of angel investment in India, IAN was established in 2006 with the prime focus on nurturing and mentoring next-generation entrepreneurs. A sector-agnostic network, IAN has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and abroad. Apart from its focus on empowering start-ups, the Network is also dedicated to shaping synergies with the investor community to supply greater weight to the entrepreneurial momentum in India. IAN’s partnership with Caspian Debt further underscores this aspect of its mission.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 11 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members. Some of its marquee investee companies include WebEngage, Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure amongst many others.

Indian Angel Network has been a pioneer in the seed and early-stage investing. The network now also has SEBI registered VC Fund of ₹375 Crores. Together with IAN Angels & IAN Fund, the platform is the single largest platform for seed & early stage, where entrepreneurs can raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores (with co-investors), thus making IAN the platform of choice!

About Caspian Debt

Caspian Debt offers custom debt to professionally managed small/mid-market companies and start-ups with ambition to grow in a responsible, transparent and sustainable manner. Caspian Debt has funded more than 130 companies pan-India that include both technology driven and brick & mortar businesses across a range of high impact sectors such as agri-business, cleantech, education & employability, healthcare, small business lending and delivery of essential services. Caspian Debt has the ability to offer a wide range of debt products which includes term loans, revolving facilities, invoice/order financing, quasi-equity and venture debt.

We are a company promoted by Caspian Advisors, a pioneering impact investing firm with the track record of supporting breakthrough companies and entrepreneurs across a range of high impact sectors. Caspian has led to the creation and growth of completely new category of financial institutions in India that include Microfinance Institutions, Affordable Housing Finance Companies and Affordable School Finance Companies.

Chennai based Agritech Startup WayCool Raises $17 Mn from LGT Impact, Northern Arc Capital and Caspian

Chennai based Agri-tech start-up WayCool has raised Rs 120 Crore (~ US$17 million), as a combination of equity and debt from LGT Impact, prominent angels, and institutional lenders, including Northern Arc Capital and Caspian.

WayCool Foods, founded in July 2015 by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, is India’s fastest growing food distribution platform leveraging innovative technology to scale-up and operate a complex supply chain. The company operates a full-stack, broadline product range across multiple channels and categories like fresh produce, staples and dairy serving over 4,000 clients.

WayCool Foods aims to use the funds to further scale-up operations across Southern and Western India, bolster its technology platform and reinforce its supply chain by building or acquiring assets and capabilities in sourcing, value added products, and automation of distribution lines.

Veda Corporate Advisors acted as the exclusive financial advisor to WayCool for the fundraise.

Commenting on the fundraise, Sanjay Dasari, Co-Founder, said, “Along with rapid growth, we have always been committed to profitability, and almost all of our business lines are operationally profitable. We had committed to open and operate 3 locations after our last institutional fund raise – we are currently operating in 13 locations. WayCool takes pride in the fact that over 70% of our tonnage is sourced directly from farmers and farming partners, with 100% of payments made digitally in 3-5 days, substantially enhancing the farmer’s return on capital employed. We are also proud to have increased farmer income by about 20% on average. In addition, we have an incredible amount of data on consumer buying behavior across segments and geographies, and plan to further strengthen our technology platform to enhance supply chain efficiencies.”

Karthik Jayaraman, Co-Founder and CEO of WayCool Foods, added “We are committed to solving India’s food supply chain problems while making a substantial positive difference to the farmers and consumers. We aim to build a large food distribution business by leveraging cutting edge technology to create efficiencies and reduce information asymmetry in the supply chain, with high quality phy-gital assets. As we continue scaling across product segments, geographies, and business lines, we will continue to raise funds but at the same time remain capital efficient and achieve a quality, mature business at scale by carefully calibrating the stage of the business to the funding needs.”

Kartik Srivatsa, Managing Partner at Aspada, an earlier investor in WayCool, said “What impresses us most about WayCool is their execution capability. They have been able to scale rapidly and consistently by leveraging technology to build a high-quality supply chain despite market disturbances. The Company has scaled 20x since the last round of funding with judicious use of capital.”

[Published unedited via Business Wire India]