StrideOne raises Rs 250 crores in a round led by Elevar Equity

StrideOne, a tech-led financial services platform for startups, from the founders of venture debt fund Stride Ventures, raised Rs 250 crores via a mix of equity (led by Elevar Equity) and debt (including top Indian banks).

The company focuses on providing smartly designed customized financial solutions to MSMEs and supply chain partners of startups (anchors). This enables a distribution model that provides access to intelligently customized growth capital for MSMEs and also enables risk efficient penetration into untapped borrower segments for StrideOne’s lending partners.

Elevar Equity invests early stage capital in entrepreneurs delivering essential products & services to underserved customer segments across India and Latin America.

Ishpreet Singh Gandhi, Founder, StrideOne, said, “We at Stride Ventures have been constantly trying to innovate newer and better structures that would be further conducive to startups who are looking to expand and grow their businesses. The idea of StrideOne and the mission of empowering MSMEs with smartly designed, tailored credit offerings, is another significant shift in that direction. It has been a supremely gratifying journey for us already and with Elevar’s deep expertise in democratizing access to capital for underserved customer segments, we look forward to doubling down on our milestones in FY’23 and beyond.”

Jyotsna Krishnan, Managing Partner, Elevar Equity, added “We are very selective about the business models and founders we back - in Ishpreet and Abhinav, we found two people who have deep execution experience in financial services, understand the startup ecosystem well, and are very sharp in how they have designed distribution into a massive, underserved market. They have a unique vision and a super-efficient profitable distribution model that lends itself to exponential growth. The accelerated scale displayed by StrideOne reiterates the massive opportunity waiting to be unlocked in the extended startup ecosystem and we are excited to partner with them to bring it to life.”