BlackSoil, a full-stack debt capital provider, has crossed a milestone of $ 300 million in venture debt deals, enabling over 100 unique startups and growth companies across several sectors to build their unique businesses. In the last six years, BlackSoil has gained a market share in the high teens in the Indian venture debt space, aided by its proprietary underwriting and structuring capability.
“BlackSoil invested $40 million in over 6 deals in Q1 FY23, posting the highest ever year-on-year growth of 4x times, despite the broader cyclical volatility, and uncertainty associated with rise and fall in COVID numbers,” the company said in a statement. “We invested in 2 unicorns in this quarter itself. Our AUM has grown 55 per cent Y-o-Y. Our investee companies have raised over $7 billion via equity since inception including $1.5 billion in FY22 itself,” the statement added.
With a general bearish trend currently prevailing in capital markets, cash has been in short supply for startups. Equity investors are operating with extra caution as the pace of deals as well as successful exits have slowed down in recent months. However, as startups’ quest for capital and investors’ hunt for safer investment avenues continue, Venture Debt providers like BlackSoil are quickly emerging as the preferred partners for both these groups.
“Given the current subdued market scenario, in the short-term funding on the equity side is likely to diminish significantly across sectors. We continue to remain bullish on Venture Debt as the ideal alternative to equity in the current market scenario,” said Ankur Bansal, Co-Founder & Director of BlackSoil. “Hence, market positioning, the robustness of the underlying business model, cash conservative nature of businesses, positive unit metrics and longer runways are some of the key metrics we are currently evaluating before we are taking a bet, irrespective of the sector they operate in,” he added.
Since 2016, Blacksoil, through its intrinsically developed credit underwriting philosophy has built a track record of truly sector agnostic – new-age, digital-first companies who are leaders in the sectors in which they operate.
BlackSoil has invested in 9 unicorns, and numerous soonincorns. At a time when startups are facing a funding crunch or possible delays in raising equity capital, BlackSoil is enabling some of these startups to circumvent this problem by providing growth capital regardless of their being at an early stage or late stage.
