IntelleGrow, the country’s first homegrown venture debt provider, moves growth into top gear in 2014. The Mumbai based firm, which raised its first major institutional round of funding last week — $4.5 million led by Omidyar Network — is just getting started on a fundraising campaign that will see it raise nearly $80 million (around Rs 500 crore) over a two-and-a-half year period. Of this, $8-12 million (Rs 50-75 crore) will be raised in the form of equity capital and the balance will be raised through long term and short term debt instruments. “The targets we’ve set may seem ambitious, we’re talking about nearly 10X growth. But consider that in the context of the addressable market, where we’re looking at a $8 billion gap,” IntelleGrow CEO Sanjib Jha told StartupCentral in a telephonic interview recently. Jha, who earlier led corporate affairs and finance at Intellecap, which is IntelleGrow’s promoter, has been involved with the firm from its inception in 2010. “Until now we operated like a startup and the primary objective was to demonstrate that the business model was viable. The latest round of funding validates that,” he said. Impact investor Omidyar Network invested in the latest round with existing investor Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Including this round of funding, IntelleGrow has so far raised Rs 50 crore ($8.1 million) in equity capital to date from Omidyar, Dell Foundation, the Shell Foundation and promoter Intellecap. In addition, it has raised Rs 35 crore ($5.7 million) in debt. Chasing 10X growth The big targets…
