Temasek buys SVB India Finance for Rs 300 crore

Singapore's Temasek has acquired SVB India Finance for Rs 300 crore, marking its foray into venture-debt lending market.
SVB India, which has now been renamed as InnoVen Capital India, provides debt financing to venture capital-backed early stage and mid-growth companies. It has extended funding for various firms including Snapdeal, Myntra and Freecharge.
Madhabi Puri Buch, former CEO of ICICI Securities, has been appointed as Chairperson of InnoVen Capital.
The acquisition is pegged at Rs 300 crore and is "Temasek's first step towards building a pan-Asian venture lending platform," SVB India said in a statement today.
Temasek's Managing Director (Enterprise Development Group) Ong Beng Teck said that it is committed to this platform as part of a broader pan-Asian venture debt financing initiative.

"India is a central piece of that initiative. We believe that the platform will be attractive to the start-up community in India - entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors - not just in the context of promoting the growth of innovative companies in India but also for their expansion as they seek to venture beyond India," he said.

SVB India plans to further develop the venture debt market in India and South Asia.
Ajay Hattangdi would continue to lead the company as CEO and Managing Director while Vinod Murali as Managing Director would be responsible for leading the India deal team.

"The team would leverage Temasek's expertise, resources and network to further strengthen its foothold in India and international markets," the statement said.
Besides Buch, others in the company's board would be Hattangdi, Fullerton India's CEO and Managing Director Shantanu Mitra and Temasek's Director (Enterprise Development Group) Aftab Mathur. The latter two would be non-executive directors and Saama Capital's Managing Partner Ash Lilani would be an independent director.
Till now, SVB India has provided over 75 loans to over 50 companies in India, aggregating an outlay of more than USD 110 million of venture debt in India.
"Some of the high-growth, innovative companies funded include Prizm Payments, Snapdeal, Myntra, Freecharge, Manthan Software, Firstcry, Faasos, Practo and Capillary Technologies," the statement said.

Indian venture debt market, which is at a nascent stage, is expected to cross USD 1 billion on a cumulative basis in the next 5-7 years.
India accounted for about four per cent of Temasek's net portfolio value based on underlying assets at the end of March 2014.