BlackSoil NBFC raises another round of Rs 22 cr

New age credit platform, BlackSoil Capital Pvt Ltd has successfully raised yet another round of Rs 22 cr through private placement to family offices and HNIs. The venture debt ecosystem is still under-penetrated and Blacksoil is one of the leading players in the ecosystem.

The funds raised through this NCDs issue will be utilized primarily for lending activities, it will be used to fund primarily growth start-ups and MSMEs. Since its inception four and half years ago, BlackSoil has raised a total of Rs 287 crores via multiple NCD issues and 30% of the same has been repaid back as well.

Ankur Bansal, Director and Co-founder of BlackSoil, said that with the pandemic accelerating the number of venture debt deals across industries, the Indian startup ecosystem is currently poised to become a significant hub for opportunities in the alternative capital segment.

“At BlackSoil despite COVID-19, we have seen massive 35% growth in disbursement amount compared to last year, which makes us confident that emerging businesses have finally warmed up to the concept of considering alternative avenues of fundraising. With that in mind and with a strong focus to help promising new age economy companies in their mission to scale up and provide robust debt solutions, we are excited about the immense possibilities that lie ahead of us,” Bansal said.

The company’s NCD program has enabled them to quickly raise funds at rates competitive with financial institutions and with longer tenures, in spite of limited capital availability to NBFCs and the economic repercussions since the IL & FS crisis. It has reduced coupons by  1.5% which means the pricing has been lowered by 150bps in the past 1 year despite pandemic and negative sentiments around the NBFC sector in general.

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The rate at which the funds have been raised demonstrates the strong market confidence of the investors in the platform. Over the last two to three years, Blacksoil has created a strong network of more than ~200 high net-worth families and corporates who have shown tremendous support by investing in multiple series.