Mumbai-based BlackSoil Capital raises $17 M from existing investors

The company has raised an equity funding of $25 million till date and the current funding round is it’s third within a span of two years.

Mumbai-based specialised debt financing non-banking finance firm, BlackSoil Capital, raised $17 million (Rs 115 crore) from its existing investors including All Cargo Logistics chairman Shashi Kiran Reddy.

The company will use the funding to expand its business. BlackSoil Capital has overall raised an equity funding of $25 million till date, and the current funding round is its third within a span of two years. The NBFC is backed by family offices of Allcargo Logistics, Navneet Education, and Mahavir agency.

BlackSoil focuses on providing customised innovative debt solutions to diverse segments such as real estate, promoters of unlisted growth companies as well as to establish institutional investors backed new-age economy companies and their ecosystem. The underwriting methodology for the new-age economy companies is more cash flow focussed as these businesses tend to be asset light in nature. In many cases, BlackSoil is the first-time lender and its usual ticket size varies between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 crore per deal.

As on Q1 of FY19, its loan book is about Rs 400 crore compared to about Rs 120 crore in FY17. Also, the NBFC has already seen 17 complete exits in this short time frame, validating its differentiated business model, said the company in a statement.

Shashi Kiran Shetty, CMD of Allcargo logistics, said, “In an environment when banks are averse to direct funding to real estate and new economy companies, NBFCs like us have a good opportunity to support such companies, as long as they meet our conservative underwriting parameters, security and cash flows requirements. We now have a decent asset base and believe this equity round is at a good time to scale up assets under management (AUM) in segments we operate in. Having completed a substantial number of deals, we now have a very good business performance data of borrowers across sectors, which will help us significantly improve our credit assessment as we further grow the platform.”

The NBFC has also recently raised a Rs 300 crore residential real estate-focused, SEBI registered category II debt fund called Walton Street BlackSoil real estate debt fund to invest in markets such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.