[Funding alert] 8vdX raises $3 mn in seed funding from YC, others

8vdX, a venture debt marketplace for startups has raised over $3 million in Seed funding round from Y Combinator and other investors.

The other investors in this round including GMO Venture Partners (RazorPay, Drip Capital, MobiKwik, Treasury Prime, InstaMojo), Zillionize (Cruise, Boom, Rippling), Cathexis, Grant Park, Asymmetry Ventures, Earlsfield Capital Partners, and Fox Ventures.

Vikram Chachra (Slice, M2P, CarWale) and Kevin Moore (Drip, RobinHood, ZoomCar) also participated in this round.

This funding enables 8vdX to remain founder-friendly. Over the past three months, the company has offered $2.8 million in debt to 16 startups, including two from India.

According to the press statement 8vdX is part of the Y Combinator (YC) Winter Batch of 2022, and is offering venture debt to fellow founders to help mitigate dilution across regions and geographies.

Based out of India and the US, 8vdX was founded in 2021 by Serial entrepreneur Ravi Chachra and Vijay Lavhale. It provides founder-friendly acceleration capital with minimal dilution to startups accepted into the Y Combinator program, and supports them in achieving their Demo Day goals.

The platform also enables investors to participate in the funding of each batch and nurture the growth of potential unicorns. They also plan to later offer venture loans to startups beyond Y Combinator.

“Over the next 18 months, we will complete the build-out of the technology platform, provide acceleration capital to 250 startups, and have an AUM of $75mn. We launched 8vdX with an aim to provide venture debt to startups across all sectors and geographies”, said, Ravi Chachra, Co-Founder of 8vdX.

“In just three months, we have an AUM of $5 million and are growing 25 percent per week. By providing venture debt, we complement the Seed round of early-stage startups, with minimal dilution of equity for the founders. We have garnered strong interest from institutional investors who want to get exposure to debt of high growth tech companies. In addition, we plan to set up an India-specific alternative investment fund (AIF) that may invest in startups outside of Y Combinator”, he added.

8vdX’s Venture debt comes with equity kickers and the company expects the principal amount to be repaid in the short term and equity kickers to generate upside over the long time horizon. It offers investors a combination of debt-like downside protection and equity-like upside. 8vdX is launching with a focus on the YC ecosystem and will enable investors to gain early access to sought-after and hard-to-find opportunities, it said.

About 8vdX

Through 8vdX, investors get early access to an index of promising startups, while startups get access to founder-friendly acceleration capital to fuel their growth to a successful fundraise. They offer flexible deals tailored to individual needs, available before your equity raise on day zero of your company’s formation. This makes for a powerful flywheel where founder friendly capital produces higher growth, which in turn gives better returns to investors.