Bigbasket Raises $14.5 Mn in Debt Funding from Trifecta Capital

Trifecta Capital on Monday said it has provided ₹ 100 crore (~ US$14.5 milliom) in venture debt to SuperMarket Grocery Supplies, the parent of online food and grocery delivery startup Bigbasket.

"This is the largest venture debt transaction in the country...The funds will be used to meet the working capital and capex requirements of the company," a statement said.

This includes setting up new warehouses, strengthening the cold chain, facilities for reprocessing of fruits and vegetables and for scaling-up of its supply chain for the recently launched milk subscription business - BB Daily and its specialty vending machine business - BB Instant, it added.

In April, BigBasket raised $40 million from CDC Group, the UK government's development finance institution. The funding was part of a bigger round of $150 million that BigBasket is raising at a valuation of $1.2 billion, making it the latest entrant to India's coveted unicorn club of startups.

"We have a clearly identified use case for debt. We are present in 26 cities and continue to optimise our supply chain. A significant part of our business is fresh fruits and vegetables, the bulk of which is sourced directly from farms. It is crucial that we maintain the quality right up to the last mile. Funding such capex requirements is best done through debt," SGS co-founder Hari Menon said.

Bigbasket, which has raised about USD 150 million from South Korea's Mirae Asset Management, UK's CDC Group, and existing investor Alibaba earlier this year, had taken venture debt from Trifecta Capital in 2017. It competes with SoftBank-backed Grofers as well as Amazon.in and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

"...(we) realised that it was a more optimal form of financing for working capital and capex. Venture Debt not only reduces dilution for all shareholders, it reduces cost of capital, improves ROE and expands runway. We recently raised USD 150 million from marquee investors and decided to supplement the equity capital with additional Venture Debt...we hope to be able to leverage their (Trifecta) Bank/Non-Bank relationships for our future fund requirements," SGS co-founder and CFO Vipul Parekh said.

Bigbasket was founded in December 2011 and has operations spread across 26 Indian cities. It is backed by investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Ventures, Ascent Capital, Sands Capital, Alibaba, CDC and Mirae. PTI SR

Online Farmers' Marketplace DeHaat Raises $2.84 Mn in Venture Debt from Trifecta Capital

Gurgaon-based DeHaat, a technology-led farmers’ marketplace to offer complete seeds-to-market services to farmers, has received a commitment of ₹ 20 crore (~ $2.84 Mn) in venture debt from Trifecta Capital, a San Francisco based seed stage venture capital fund.

The debt fund raised will be released to DeHaat over a 12-month period, which the startup would use to pilot financial services for farmers, including credit and insurance products.

DeHaat has raised the debt capital soon after two months when the startup had raised $4 million in a pre-series A round of funding led by impact investor Omnivore Partners along with US-based agriculture investor AgFunder and few other angel investors.

Shashank Kumar, co-founder and CEO of DeHaat, said in a statement to leading daily, "Our larger goal is to become a one-stop destination for Indian farmers, which can meet all of their agricultural needs.This funding from Trifecta Capital will provide us additional capacity as we introduce financial services to farmers on our platform."

DeHaat aims to maximize farmers'​ income through technology-led interventions by offering all agricultural needs of farmers under one roof in an accessible and affordable way.

Rahul Khanna, co-founder and Managing Partner at Trifecta Capital said, “DeHaat is one of the most capital efficient startups we have ever come across. They have a strong hold on unit economics and an amazing proposition for farmers as well as other value chain players."

According to DeHaat's LinkedIn company profile, Currently more than 25,000 farmers are registered with 50+ DeHaat micro-entrepreneurs and are getting direct access to quality agri inputs (from UPL, DuPont, Bayer, etc.), advisory (DeHaat panel of esteemed scientists and advisors), and market (to ITC, Godrej, Reliance, Metro, etc.) of value more than ₹ 3.5 Cr/month in Bihar, U.P and Odisha.

The startup is targeting to reach out to 100,000 farmers through 150+ DeHaat micro-entrepreneurs/centers by March'18 and 1 million+ farmers by 2020.

About Trifecta, it is a leading venture debt firm which had launched its first venture debt fund in 2014 and is now raising a ₹750-crore second fund.

[Top Featured Image - ShashankFnF @Twitter]

B2B Agri-Marketing Platform Ninjacart Raises $35 Mn from Accel Partners and Swiss-based Syngeta Ventures

Bangalore-based Ninjacart, an agri-marketing platform that connects farmers with retailers, has announced that it has raised US$35 million (₹250 crore) in series B round of funding from venture capital firms Accel Partners (US), Switzerland-based Syngenta Ventures and Neoplux, a South Korean private equity firm.

The other investors which also contributed in this round include Jo Hirao, founder of ZIGExN, HR Capital and Trifecta Capital. Ninjacart's existing investors Accel India, Nandan Nilekani, Mistletoe and Qualcomm Ventures also participated in this round.

The company said it would use the funding to expand to new geographies, strengthen product and technology teams and invest in bettering the supply chain infrastructure. Ninjacart aims to expand to over 10 cities and open more than 200 distribution centres across India and scale hiring and onboarding talent in the near future.

So far, Ninjacart has raised a total of $49 million in funding over five rounds.

Founded in 2015, by Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran K K, Sharath Loganathan, Thirukumaran Nagarajan and Vasu Devan, Ninjacart connect vegetables and fruits farmers directly with businesses. At one end, it helps farmers get better prices and ensure consistent demand and on other end, it also helps retailers source fresh vegetables at competitive prices directly from farmers.

Initially started as an on-demand grocery delivery service, the startup changed its business model to a business-to-business agri-marketing platform. Earlier this year, it piloted a business-to-consumer model (franchised and owned) and now plans to focus on acquiring new markets.

Speaking on latest funding, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO & Co-founder of Ninjacart, said, "This is a huge validation of Ninjacart’s business model, our relentless focus on solving India’s Agri-marketing problem and the team’s execution capabilities. We are thrilled to have a new set of global investors who can amplify our vision. Our focus will be on expanding to new markets and continue to innovate on behalf of our farmers and customers — and this will come from continued investments in talent, technology and supply chain infrastructure."

The startup currently operates in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai with a team of 750+ passionate individuals. It has a sourcing network of 3000+ farmers across south India and moves fresh produce from farm to 4000+ retailers in less than 12 hours on a daily basis.

[Top mage - Facebook.com/Nijacart]

Car Rental Startup Zoomcar Raises Fresh $3.5 Mn from Trifecta Capital

After raising whopping $40 million in a Series C funding, in February this year, Bengaluru-based car rental startup Zoomcar has raised fresh $3.6 million (~ Rs 25 crore) in debt fund from Silicon Valley-based Trifecta Venture Debt Fund, says the company's recent filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Touted as India's first 100% self-drive focused car rental company without chauffeurs, Zoomcar has raised a total of about US$104 million in 10 rounds of fundings from high profile investors including Ford's Smart Mobility, Mahindra, Sequoia capital and Empire Angels, among others.

Commenced its operations in February 2013, the company now operates a fleet of over 3,000 vehicles across 27 cities including Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Jaipur, and Mysore, among others. For the fiscal year 2017, Zoomcar had recorded a revenue of Rs 121 crore.

Zoomcar has recently launched Mahindra e20Plus electric vehicles across Mysore, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Thereafter, it was also reported to have added another 500+ Mahindra EVs across more than 20 cities pan-India, in the first half of 2018.

Founded in 2013 by American duo David Back and Greg Moran, Zoomcar was started with $215,000 in capital and a fleet of seven cars and then initially raised capital from individual investors including former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Chair of the UK Institute of Directors Lady Barbara Judge and the former Director of the Cambridge Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies Shai Vyakarnam. Zoomcar has also raised money from former Infosys CFO T.V. Mohandas Pai and his business partner Abhay Jain.

In October last year, Zoomcar launched PEDL, India’s first dockless cycle sharing service. The service currently operates across 10 cities with a fleet of more than 3,000 cycles.

In February this year, , an another Bengaluru-based car rental startup Drivezy raised $5 million via Initial Coin Offering, an unregulated means by which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture.

Via - DealStreetAsia | Source - Yourstory | References - Wikipedia.org/Zoomcar

Car Rental Startup Zoomcar Raises Fresh $3.5 Mn from Trifecta Capital

After raising whopping $40 million in a Series C funding, in February this year, Bengaluru-based car rental startup Zoomcar has raised fresh $3.6 million (~ Rs 25 crore) in debt fund from Silicon Valley-based Trifecta Venture Debt Fund, says the company's recent filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Touted as India's first 100% self-drive focused car rental company without chauffeurs, Zoomcar has raised a total of about US$104 million in 10 rounds of fundings from high profile investors including Ford's Smart Mobility, Mahindra, Sequoia capital and Empire Angels, among others.

Commenced its operations in February 2013, the company now operates a fleet of over 3,000 vehicles across 27 cities including Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Jaipur, and Mysore, among others. For the fiscal year 2017, Zoomcar had recorded a revenue of Rs 121 crore.

Zoomcar has recently launched Mahindra e20Plus electric vehicles across Mysore, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Thereafter, it was also reported to have added another 500+ Mahindra EVs across more than 20 cities pan-India, in the first half of 2018.

Founded in 2013 by American duo David Back and Greg Moran, Zoomcar was started with $215,000 in capital and a fleet of seven cars and then initially raised capital from individual investors including former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Chair of the UK Institute of Directors Lady Barbara Judge and the former Director of the Cambridge Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies Shai Vyakarnam. Zoomcar has also raised money from former Infosys CFO T.V. Mohandas Pai and his business partner Abhay Jain.

In October last year, Zoomcar launched PEDL, India’s first dockless cycle sharing service. The service currently operates across 10 cities with a fleet of more than 3,000 cycles.

In February this year, , an another Bengaluru-based car rental startup Drivezy raised $5 million via Initial Coin Offering, an unregulated means by which funds are raised for a new cryptocurrency venture.

Via - DealStreetAsia | Source - Yourstory | References - Wikipedia.org/Zoomcar

Food Delivery Startup BOX8 Raises Rs 7 Cr of Venture Debt from Trifecta Capital

BOX8, one of the India’s fastest growing food delivery start-ups has raised Rs 7 Cr in venture debt funding from Trifecta Capital, in addition to Rs 50 crores raised in series B round raised from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund & Mayfield.

Started by two IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta, BOX8 is a full stack online food delivery player that specializes in preparing and delivering delicious Indian meals across Mumbai, Pune & Bengaluru. It serves around 14000 meals everyday through a network of 65 plus stores.

“Venture debt is an excellent proposition; since it provides access to debt where traditional bank lending doesn't participate, and does that without diluting equity, unlike venture capital. This will help us maintain a balance in our financial structure & at the same time, keep growing at a rapid pace” Said Amit Raj.

“We have been monitoring the online food delivery sector for almost two years. More than 150 start-ups were funded in this space and as a venture debt provider, it was important for us to wait until some clarity emerged on the business models that would survive. BOX8 has demonstrated ability to grow quickly with focus on Indian food and has established a strong value proposition proven by high repeat customer behaviour. We are excited to be part of BOX8’s growth journey” said Rahul Khanna, co-founder, Trifecta Capital.

“The biggest benefit of this partnership is the profound experience & knowledge of the ecosystem that the Trifecta team brings in, we are aggressively looking at scaling up our operations & their expertise will be immensely helpful for us at this stage” said Anshul Gupta.

With this venture debt, BOX8 intends to penetrate deeper into the existing three markets, forming micro catchments to enhance customer experience, and with that, they also plan to expand to new geographies using the same approach. Delhi operations are slated to begin in the next few weeks, while Hyderabad & Chennai will follow later this year.

"We are very excited about expanding to Delhi. Starting with Gurugram, we would scale up operations in Delhi NCR in coming months. Mohit Surana, who established Bengaluru operations for us, has taken charge to build our business in Delhi NCR region" said Anshul.

"Delhi & Gurugram, with other capital regions, is a huge opportunity area for us. We believe that our experience of last few years in the existing three cities has helped us derive the success formula, & now we will leverage these to establish our leadership in NCR" said Mohit Surana, Regional Head, BOX8.

BOX8 remains focused on their underlying premise of becoming the leading brand in the space of Indian food delivery; a made in India enterprise serving the best that Indian food has to offer.