BlackSoil Capital Closes its First Venture Debt Deal

NewsVoir | 13 Sep, 2016
Indiaâs largest local commerce platform nearbuy, raises venture debt of Rs 15 crore from BlackSoil Capital Private limited. Featuring hyper local offers in segments like food & beverage, spa, salons, wellness & getaways nearbuy allows customers to discover the best things to do around them.

nearbuy is backed by the Venture Capital firm, Sequoia Capital with Groupon US as a minority shareholder. Post management buyout in August 2015, wherein Sequoia had invested $17 million, this is the first debt transaction for nearbuy. The Gurgaon based startup aims at utilizing the capital for investing in customer and merchant technology.

Ã¢ÂÂIn the past 12 months nearbuy has expanded its presence to 33 cities across 10+ categories generating over 500,000 footfalls for offline merchants per month.

BlackSoil Capital Pvt. Ltd. is an RBI registered NBFC that specializes in Real Estate and Venture Debt amongst other segments. The NBFC is promoted by Mr. Shashi Kiran Shetty, CMD of US$700Mn AllCargo logistics, Mr. Gnanesh Gala, Managing Director of US$400Mn Navneet Education Ltd. and renowned Mumbai based realty expert Mr. Virendra Gala.

Director of the NBFC Mr. Mohinder Pal Bansal said âVenture Debt concept is growing rapidly in India and has a huge potential considering the evolving Startup Indian industry. BlackSoil Capital is looking forward to partner with Startups with strong and sustainable business models like nearbuy who are enjoying attractive unit economics and customer tractionâ

Ankur Warikoo, Founder & CEO nearbuy stated, âWe are delighted to have partnered with BlackSoil Capital. With this financing, nearbuy will focus on core technology for customers and merchants to further cement our market leadership position in Indiaâ¦â

âWe are confident that this venture debt from BlackSoil will help us accomplish our goals more efficiently. BlackSoil was able to tailor a financing structure that met our business needsâ quoted Mr. Sumeet Kapur, CFO, nearbuy.