InnoVen Capital eyes Chinese mkt

 Venture lending firm InnoVen Capital is planning to explore the Chinese market by setting up its presence there.

The firm’s Singapore office serves the needs of its clients across the Southeast Asian market, including Malaysia, the Indonesia and Thailand. “Apart from India and Southeast Asia, we are currently looking at China,” said InnoVen Capital Group COO and CEO (India) Ajay Hattangdi.

Started in 2008, the firm has offices in Mumbai and Singapore. The platform was rebranded as InnoVen Capital, following a buyout of the business led by Temasek Holdings and UOB Group in 2015.

It provides multiple debt solutions including venture term debt, acquisition finance, growth loans, project finance and syndication.

Under InnoVen Credit Assistance Programme (InnoVenCAP), InnoVen Capital has partnered with a few large banks and financial institutions such as IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank, Standard Chartered and Tata Capital to provide working capital and other structured debt solutions to portfolio companies.

“With InnoVenCAP, we have established ourselves as a Knowledge Partner for both banks and startups where we leverage our extensive experience in the venture debt space to bridge the gap between banks and our growth stage clients,” he said.

The team has provided over 140 loans to more than 90 early and mid-growth stage startups, including Swiggy, Yatra, Byju’s, Snapdeal, FreeCharge, Myntra and OYO, among others.

“We provide term loans ranging from Rs 2 crore to Rs 50 crore, and can partner with other banks and lenders to write larger cheques both onshore and offshore,” he said.

InnoVen Capital currently has investor commitments of $200 million. Talking about the evaluation process, he said, “We consider several factors such as attractiveness of the sector and the business model, stage of business, background and ability of the team, liquidity, and quality of the investor.”

When asked about the venture debt market in India, he said it is at a relatively nascent stage compared with the US with significant headroom to grow as the ecosystem matures and more companies appreciate the value of venture debt.

“While a long-term decline in venture capital flows will almost certainly impact our business, short-term corrections should not materially impact the growth of venture debt,” he said, adding that the current softness in VC investments in India is only temporary.