Trifecta Capital: India’s Venture-Debt + Growth-Equity Engine

Trifecta Capital has spent the last decade building one of India’s most disciplined capital stacks for venture-backed companies: non-dilutive venture debt at scale, paired with a late-stage Leaders Fund for selective equity. With $680M+ deployed across 180+ startups since 2015 and active teams in Gurugram, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, the platform backs category leaders from consumer and fintech to logistics and enterprise software, often bridging the private-to-public transition.

Who they are

Co-founded by Rahul Khanna and Nilesh Kothari (Managing Partners), Trifecta operates as a Category II AIF with two pillars: a multi-vintage Venture Debt franchise and Trifecta Leaders Fund I for growth equity. The firm’s on-the-ground presence and underwriting muscle were forged in venture debt and now inform concentrated equity bets in late-stage leaders.

Investment strategy at a glance

Credit (Venture Debt). Purpose-built for predictable use cases, runway extension ahead of an equity round, inventory/receivables cycles, and capex such as vehicles, POS, or cloud kitchens, delivering lower cost of capital versus equity and faster execution than bank debt.

Growth equity (Leaders Fund I). Minority positions (mix of primary and secondary) in companies with a 1–3 year line of sight to liquidity (IPO/strategic). Cheques are sizable but selective, informed by years of visibility from the debt book.

Portfolio at a Glance

Trifecta’s portfolio spans India’s most recognizable new-economy brands. In consumer and commerce, it has supported BigBasket, Livspace, Country Delight, Meesho, and Dailyhunt. Mobility and logistics exposure includes BlackBuck, BluSmart, Chalo, and Cogoport. In fintech, names like Cashfree, Fibe (EarlySalary), Kissht, and MobiKwik reflect breadth across payments and credit. Healthcare spans PharmEasy, GOQii, NephroPlus, and Practo, while enterprise/SaaS and B2B include Bizongo, IDfy, Industrybuying, Inframarket, and ixigo. Several of these began as debt relationships and later graduated to equity, most notably via Leaders Fund I’s 2021 deployments into ixigo, Meesho, PharmEasy, and Good Glamm Group.

Capital Stack: Ticket Sizes & Terms

On the venture-debt side, Trifecta typically backs companies with average tickets of roughly $2.8–$3.4M, with capacity for initial cheques around $1.1–$1.7M and the flexibility to scale follow-ons up to ~$11M as milestones are met. Structures range from working-capital lines to term debt and capex financing, often synchronized to revenue cycles to minimize interest drag.

For growth equity, Leaders Fund I generally writes $11–$23M cheques across a concentrated set of late-stage category leaders (mix of primary + secondary) to streamline cap tables and provide pre-IPO liquidity where appropriate; underwriting centers on an expected 1–3 year liquidity horizon.

Founder Profile & Fit

Best fit: VC-backed startups with predictable cash flows and near-term catalysts, next equity round or 1–3 year IPO/strategic path, where debt can extend runway and sharpen milestones, and where a future primary/secondary equity solution could accelerate a private-to-public glide path. The credit team looks for clear repayment visibility (recurring demand, SaaS subscriptions, inventory turns), while the equity team favors category leadership, durable unit economics, and governance readiness.

WOWS take

While Trifecta is India-focused and WOWS Global isn’t currently facilitating India-specific raises, their playbook, pairing structured venture debt with selective late-stage equity, is instructive for founders planning disciplined scale and an eventual listing. For Southeast Asia fundraising, WOWS focuses on connecting founders with stage- and sector-aligned capital in our network and sharing operator-grade insights on when to layer debt, secondary, or growth equity.

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