Trifecta Capital announces first close of Rs 2,000-crore Fund-IV

Venture debt firm Trifecta Capital on Thursday announced the first close of its Fund-IV, which aims to raise Rs 2,000 crore (about $230 million) for investment in more than 100 domestic companies.Mumbai-based Trifecta Capital’s managing partner Rahul Khanna told ET that the firm has already secured nearly half of the targeted corpus through signed commitments and advanced discussions.

“We expect to keep raising, including offshore, as there seems to be greater interest in private credit/venture debt as well as the fact that we have a significant track record,” Khanna said.

Fund-IV includes a Rs 500-crore greenshoe option. The firm had launched the fund in August last year expecting to draw interest from investor classes, including global financial institutions, domestic conglomerates, banks, insurance firms and development financial institutions.

In a statement, Trifecta Capital said that through Fund-IV, it plans to invest in over 100 companies, focusing on sectors such as fintech, electric vehicles, consumer products, logistics, new-age manufacturing, B2B services, and software and hardware tech startups.

“The fund will also actively explore opportunities in emerging sectors like renewable energy, climate and sustainability, which are now soliciting mainstream capital and are poised for significant growth in the coming decade,” the statement said.

Trifecta Capital, founded by Khanna and Nilesh Kothari in 2015, has invested in more than 30 unicorns, including Meesho, Zepto and Urban Company, and more than a dozen companies with close to unicorn valuations.It has so far deployed over Rs 6,500 crore in capital.

In the venture debt ecosystem, Trifecta Capital rivals firms such as Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures.

Last year, Mumbai-based Alteria Capital had made the final close of its third fund at $195 million.

Gurgaon-based Stride Ventures, which has backed startups such as Rebel Foods, Sugar Cosmetics, Bluestone and Foxtale, announced the launch of its fourth fund in December with a $300 million target corpus.

“Investors have appreciated Trifecta Capital’s venture debt funds for their ability to protect capital through strong underwriting and innovative structuring, regular income distributions, consistency of returns, equity upside and tax efficiency,” said Kothari, managing partner, Trifecta Capital. “The funds have been a key part of their fixed-income income allocations and continue to be attractive relative to other private credit opportunities.”