Venture lending fund Stride Ventures on Wednesday announced the first close of Stride Ventures India Fund II, for which it has secured commitments of Rs 550 crore. Stride Ventures has secured commitments of Rs 550 crore, out of its target corpus of Rs 1,000 crore, with an additional greenshoe option of Rs 875 crore.

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The fund received approval for its Rs 1,875 crore plan from the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in June 2021. Stride Ventures founder and managing partner Ishpreet Gandhi said that there has been considerable tailwinds in the Indian startup ecosystem which presents a perfect opportunity to invest in the potential of venture debt in India.

"With the majority of investors from our maiden fund returning to invest in the new fund, we have had a quicker-than-expected first close. Their confidence remains resolute in our mission to build innovative alternate financing solutions for founders to help scale their startups more efficiently," Gandhi said.

The firm remains on track to announce the final close of the second fund by the end of 2021. With its ability to recycle capital, Stride will effectively have more than Rs 3,000 crore for funding startups across the tenure of the fund, the statement said.

The firm aims to ramp up deployment in late-stage startups across sectors like business-to-business (B2B) commerce, healthcare, agritech, fintech and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands with an average ticket size of up to Rs 75 crore.

"In addition to family offices and institutional investors, the firm will diversify its investor base outside India for Stride Ventures India Fund II, on the lines of the maiden fund. Amid growing investor confidence and a maturing Indian startup ecosystem, the new fund represents a significant opportunity for the firm to build a robust pipeline of deployments in the coming months," the statement said.

Founded in 2019, Stride Ventures closed its maiden fund of Rs 350 crore earlier this year. Stride Ventures have made disbursals of over Rs 400 crores in 2021, through 20 investments which includes start-ups like Pocket Aces, Miko, SUGAR Cosmetics etc. and late-stage startups like Infra.market, Spinny, HomeLane, Zetwerk and Bizongo.