If you want to understand how deeply venture debt is woven into India's startup story, start with InnoVen Capital. Established in 2015 as a joint venture between Seviora — a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek — and United Overseas Bank, InnoVen describes itself as Asia's leading venture lending platform, with offices in India, China and Singapore supporting venture-backed technology companies across the region.
The scale is formidable: more than $1.9 billion invested across 770+ debt transactions, 420+ portfolio companies, and over 50 unicorns in the portfolio. Its portfolio companies have collectively raised more than $58 billion in equity. The firm's roots go back further — to 2008, when it began as SVB India Finance, the venture debt arm of Silicon Valley Bank, which Temasek acquired for a reported Rs 280 crore and renamed InnoVen Capital India in 2015.
The current India vehicle is the InnoVen Capital India Fund, a SEBI-registered Category II AIF that announced a first close of approximately Rs 740 crore ($100 million), anchored by InnoVen Capital Pte Ltd, the Temasek–UOB joint venture. The fund targets a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore with a green shoe option for an additional Rs 1,000 crore. It is stage and sector agnostic, with a primary focus on consumer internet, B2B commerce, enterprise software, fintech, healthtech and logistics — and it has disbursed roughly $400 million to Indian startups since 2017 alone.
Few lender portfolios in India carry this much weight. InnoVen has backed Swiggy, Oyo, Byju's, Eruditus, DailyHunt, PharmEasy, Infra.Market, Zetwerk, Moglix, FirstCry, BharatPe, boAT, Licious, Blackbuck, Rebel Foods and OfBusiness — alongside earlier names like Yatra, Myntra, Snapdeal, Practo and Capillary. More recently, it extended a Rs 50 crore venture debt facility to quantum computing startup QpiAI, reportedly at a 13.85% coupon maturing in December 2028 — a sign of how far institutional venture debt now reaches.
Leadership in India sits with Ashish Sharma, Managing Partner of InnoVen Capital India, alongside partner Tarana Lalwani; the group's board includes chairman Timothy Chia and CEO Beng Teck Ong. The firm's pitch to founders is consistency and speed: a founder-centric, pan-Asian platform that works alongside dozens of VC partners and treats venture debt as a strategic part of the financing mix — not a lender of last resort.
Why it matters for founders
InnoVen's Temasek backing gives it something rare in Indian venture debt: deep, patient capital with an Asia-wide lens. For founders at Series A and beyond, it is one of the most credible non-dilutive funding sources in the country — and with 50+ unicorns in its portfolio, it has seen nearly every scaling scenario before you.