Alternative Credit Firm BlackSoil Says FY23 Investments Grew 55% YoY

Demand for debt funding has increased as start-ups search for alternative avenues amid a funding winter lasting months now.

BlackSoil, a Mumbai-based alternative credit platform, in FY23 saw its investments increase by more than 55 per cent compared to FY22. The FY23 investments amounted to around $90 million across almost 40 deals. That year, BlackSoil achieved more than 15 successful exits.

As global and domestic PE/VC funds slow down investments, start-ups are facing a funding crunch. BlackSoil said it has been able to meet this gap through venture debt and has seen a 1.5x increase in deal flow.

The company, in a statement said, its investments in Q4 FY23 grew 45 per cent and more than 65 per cent in repayments compared to the corresponding period in FY22.

“Our team’s ability to identify and invest in promising businesses and sectors, coupled with our focus on building long-term relationships with our clients, has helped the company to maintain a robust growth trajectory even in a challenging economic environment,” said Ankur Bansal, co-founder and director of BlackSoil.

BlackSoil made some notable investments in FY23 its core sectors, which include fintech/finserv, agritech, B2B, consumer internet, healthcare/healthtech, SaaS, and IOT. It also invested in new-age sectors such as battery swapping (Battery Smart), OTA travel (Yatra.com), discount broking (Upstox), finserv marketplace (BankBazaar), healthtech (HealthPlix), deeptech (Tonbo Imaging) & fintech unicorn (MobiKwik).

BlackSoil's investee companies have raised over $8 billion via equity as of March 2023. The portfolio raised more than $500 million in FY23 despite the funding winter.

“Our commitment towards supporting resilient entrepreneurs and investing in companies with potential for advancement has paid off, resulting in significant investments as well as successful exits,” said Bansal.