Investor Profile: Nisus Finance — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Nisus Finance funding is institutional capital for India's urban infrastructure and real estate — not seed cheques for tech startups, and that distinction matters. Nisus Finance Services Co Limited (NiFCO), headquartered in Mumbai, runs three verticals — Fund & Asset Management, Transaction Advisory and an NBFC arm. Incorporated in 2013, it calls itself "a focused urban infrastructure investment fund and asset management company," managing SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Funds. Official site: nisusfin.com.

Thesis

Nisus Finance makes opportunistic, medium-term structured debt and mezzanine investments in late-stage, brownfield Indian real estate — mid-income housing, plotted developments and commercial projects — via senior secured NCDs, targeting high-yield, asset-covered, short-exit special situations.

Sectors & stages

Residential real estate (mid-income housing, plotted developments), late-stage commercial projects, and SME financing via the NBFC arm — expanding beyond core markets (MMR, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai) into tier-2 cities. Late-stage/brownfield only. Instruments: senior secured NCDs, structured credit, mezzanine. The flagship fund targets a 12% IRR hurdle and 20–21% gross IRR, with a four-year term (extendable by two) and a 24-month commitment period (extendable by one).

Fund size & cheque size

The flagship Real Estate Credit Opportunities Fund – I (RECOF-I) targets Rs 500 crore including a Rs 200 crore greenshoe — a SEBI-registered Category II AIF (no. IN/AIF2/18-19/0647) managed by Dalmia Nisus Finance Investment Managers LLP. Minimum investment: Rs 1 crore; sponsor/anchor commitment 15% (NiFCO plus Dalmia Group Holdings). The family also includes the Real Estate Asset Performance Fund (2015), the Real Estate Special Opportunities Fund (2022), REAP-1, the Nisus High Yield Growth Fund (GIFT City and DIFC, Dubai) and a 2023 IFSC vehicle; the company went public-limited in 2024. Total AUM is not stated on the official site's pages read.

Notable portfolio

Rs 40 crore invested in July 2022 in Shriram Properties' Chirping Ridge (~21-acre plotted development, Malur Taluk, Bengaluru), exited August 2024 at ~19% IRR on a two-year hold. About Rs 95 crore via RESO-I in Swaminarayan Business Park (Narol, Ahmedabad), alongside Kotak's Phoenix ARC on a pari-passu charge, taking over DHFL's loans via Piramal Capital. RECOF-1 has largely exited its portfolio and is on track for a 19% net IRR with quarterly distributions and capital returned within four years.

Partners / team

Amit Goenka, Chairman & Managing Director. RECOF-I investment committee: Sunil Agarwal (founder, Black Olive Ventures; ex-ICICI Ventures, HSBC, JLL India), Naushad Panjwani (independent director, CA), Gaurav Dalmia (Global Technology Investment Group) and Avadhoot Sarwate (CA/CFA, heads group fundraising).

Programs & perks

None. Nisus Finance runs institutional SEBI-registered AIFs; no startup accelerator, founder programme, grant or perk scheme is described anywhere on the official site.

How to apply for funding from Nisus Finance

There is no online application portal — the only route is the "Speak to Us" contact form at nisusfin.com/contact, plus [email protected] and +91-22-6164 8888 (Mumbai corporate office). Understand the framing: with a Rs 1 crore AIF minimum ticket and a late-stage real-estate mandate, Nisus Finance is a capital partner for developers with advanced-stage projects — not a seed-stage startup check writer.