BlackSoil, a Mumbai-based venture debt firm, has raised $25 million in funding from banks, family offices, corporate treasuries, and high-net-worth individuals. The debt firm has raised the capital through its various debt products, and 60% of the participants in the round were existing investors. This is in addition to another $35 million that BlackSoil raised in the first half of the financial year 2022-23, taking its total raised amount to $60 million in the last financial year. BlackSoil is a sector-agnostic alternative credit platform with $90 million worth of assets under management (AUM), claiming to have deployed more than $270 million worth of debt across 135 deals.
The venture debt firm has invested in nine unicorns, including Zetwerk, OYO, Spinny, Upstox, Udaan, and Blu Smart. The debt funding firm last raised INR 250 Crore from family offices, UHNIs/HNIs, and investment institutions in October 2022. The popularity of venture debt has been growing in the Indian startup ecosystem due to the funding crunch and concerns around cash burn and profitability. As a result, more and more startups are turning to venture debt to fuel their growth. GIVA, a D2C silver jewelry brand, also raised INR 40 Cr worth of debt from Alteria Capital, and even the state-backed Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has executed four debt investments in the space.