Ashvin Chadha, Anicut Capital on backing the best D2C companies with Debt & Equity Funding

The Neon Show

Venture debt was introduced in India 15 years ago. However, it has gained traction in the last decade.

In the last 6 years itself, approximately $4 bn of debt has been deployed across 150+ deals in India.

But, not very often you come across an investor talking proactively about both debt & equity investments in the startup ecosystem!

That’s why in this episode we’ve brought Ashvin Chadha from Anicut Capital.

During the podcast, Ashvin talks about the various debt funding deals he came across at Anicut, and while he considers debt funding to be lucrative over equity investments over a short period, but for people who are willing to stay invested for over 10-15 years, he points out how we are in the golden age of early-stage investing.

He also talks about how a lot of VCs in the Indian Startup ecosystem are already getting 100x returns on their equity investments, we shouldn’t be surprised to see 1000x returns becoming normal in years to come.

Notes -

01:56 - Setting up Anicut Capital

03:24 - Initial equity & debt investments

04:51 - Structuring debt investments by setting up an AIF in 2015

06:04 - Investing in Sharechat during an internal bridge round

09:19 - Exits & thesis with debt investments

10:52 - “In my view it takes 10-15 years to build brands in India and if you don’t stay the course, your compounding doesn’t happen.”

13:55 - Parameters & mental models while making equity investments

15:56 - Learnings from portfolio companies hitting a roadblock

24:12 - “We are in the golden age of early stage investing.”

26:56 - “A good company will last even in a bad market.”

27:07 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Bira 91

30:51 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Wingreen Farms

42:02 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Neemans