Trifecta Capital Provides Venture Debt to Bigbasket

This is the largest venture debt transaction in the country

Trifecta Capital has announced that it has provided Rs. 100 crores of venture debt to SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd. that owns and operates the online food and grocery portal bigbasket.

This is the largest venture debt transaction in the country, and a sign of growing attraction to meet their capital needs from new age businesses.

Hari Menon, Co-Founder, SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd said, “We have a clearly identified use case for debt. We are present in 26 cities and continue to optimise our supply chain. A significant part of our business is fresh fruits and vegetables, the bulk of which is sourced directly from farms. It is crucial that we maintain the quality right up to the last mile. Funding such capex requirements is best done through debt.” 

Vipul Parekh, CFO & Co-Founder, SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd said, “We had taken Venture Debt from Trifecta Capital in 2017 and realised that it was a more optimal form of financing for working capital and capex. Venture Debt not only reduces dilution for all shareholders, it reduces cost of capital, improves ROE and expands runway. We recently raised $ 150 million from marquee investors and decided to supplement the equity capital with additional Venture Debt. Given our relationship with Trifecta Capital and their understanding of our business, they were the obvious choice. As we build a credit history with Trifecta Capital, we hope to be able to leverage their Bank/Non-Bank relationships for our future fund requirements.”

Nilesh Kothari, Co-Founder, Trifecta Capital said, “Bigbasket is the largest online grocery brand in the country. The five founders – Hari Menon, V Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari – have significant offline and online retail experience. They have leveraged economies of scale, technology, supply chain and logistics, backward integration and product mix to create a viable, high growth business that is delivering significant value to its customers. They are backed by very high quality and deep pocketed investors. We are excited to continue to be able to support the growth needs of this newest Indian Unicorn.”

Rahul Khanna, Co-Founder of Trifecta Capital said, “Trifecta’s strategy is to provide customized debt solutions to companies based on their specific business needs. We are also able to connect our investee companies to traditional businesses and banking channels. Several of our investee companies have benefited from leveraging our networks. Equally, our LPs are eager to find ways to collaborate with our investee companies. We are constantly looking for innovative ways to add value to our investee companies.”

The funds will be used to meet the working capital and capex requirements of the Company including setting up new warehouses, strengthening the cold chain, setting up facilities for reprocessing of fruits & vegetables and for scaling-up of its supply chain for the recently launched milk subscription business – BB Daily and its specialty vending machine business – BB Instant.