Venture debt investor InnoVen backs Southeast Asian startups KFit, Pomelo

Venture debt firm InnoVen Capital India Pvt Ltd said on Monday it has agreed to provide a total of $5 million in loans to two startups in Southeast Asia.

The firm will provide venture debt to Malaysian e-commerce health and fitness company KFit Holdings and Thailand-based e-commerce fashion company Pomelo, it said in a statement. It didn't give a breakup of the two deals.

The two companies will use the capital to accelerate growth and for commercialization of their businesses.

InnoVen is a specialty finance company that offers venture debt, a type of growth capital loan provided to venture capital-backed startups. While KFit Holdings is backed by Sequoia Capital, Pomelo has previously raised funding from Jungle Ventures.

InnoVen was earlier known as SVB India Finance Pvt Ltd. It was acquired by Singapore state investment firm Temasek in January 2015 and renamed as InnoVen in April.

In July last year, Singapore's United Overseas Bank picked up a 50 per cent stake in InnoVen. Temasek and United Overseas Bank had then committed a total of $200 million for InnoVen.

Ajay Hattangdi, group COO and India CEO at InnoVen, said that the firm continues to invest heavily in building its India business but also wants to be able to support its clients and their investors across markets. "Having one unified platform across the region helps us to work seamlessly with clients who are increasingly looking to expand beyond just one market and therefore have requirements for risk capital across geographies," he said.

InnoVen said it expects to commit about $500 million in venture debt transactions to high-growth startups across the region over the next five years.

It recently announced completing 100 venture debt deals in India after disbursing about Rs 275 crore across 27 transactions in 2015. The firm aims to provide fresh funding in excess of $65 million this year.

It is the first dedicated venture debt provider in India and has backed firms such as Snapdeal, Freecharge, Myntra, Practo, Portea, PepperTap, Byju's, Faasos, Capillary Technologies and Manthan systems.