Alteria Capital launches its Activate platform as it looks to go beyond credit

Alteria Capital has launched Activate, a platform that connects the country’s startups with its large listed corporates, as well as other late-stage ventures, as the Mumbai-headquartered venture debt firm looks to provide a portfolio of services, beyond credit.

Activate, which was launched about three months ago, will use Alteria’s connections across India’s corporate sector and the startup ecosystem, to link ventures, many of which are at an early-stage, to provide a range of services, from building and creating technology stacks for legacy businesses, knowledge sharing and strategy support, to evaluating market competitors.

“While venture debt is our main product, what we bring through Activate is opening up our network, which we have built over 10 years in this industry…It helps us to break down barriers to accessibility, and offer intelligent connections,” Ajay Hattangdi, managing partner at Alteria Capital, told ET.

The Mumbai-headquartered venture debt firm, which is currently in the midst of raising its maiden Rs 1,000 crore fund, has closed about 14 transactions till date and has disbursed over Rs 200 crore since inception late last year.

However, Hattangdi reiterated that Activate will not be restricted to Alteria’s portfolio company only. The platform is open to the entire ecosystem, with potential outcomes leading to investments in the startups, or outright acquisitions.

“We try and understand what the innovation challenge that they are currently having, and which could include scouring their websites and director reports, and then we distil that,” Hattangdi said.

The platform takes the problem statements, translates the same into a major theme, which is then boiled down to specific models.

“We start listing the models and look for startups that provide solutions for the same. The startups can be from our portfolio, from the portfolios of other venture capital firms, or even angel newels and incubators,” Hattangdi said.

While others, such as global technology and consulting giant Accenture have built and rolled out similar platforms, Alteria’s Activate platform, however, caters primarily to startups, and while there are no plans currently to book revenue from its latest offering, it will charge the large corporates a fee down the line to support the platform.

Alteria is also in talks to bring on board nine corporates, including some of the country’s largest listed entities, on to the platform. Hattangdi, however, declined to share names, as the venture debt firm is currently in advanced closing discussions with them.

While these are early days yet, the platform has seen early traction. Last month, digital payments platform MobiKwik acquired Harvest Fintech, which owns and operates online mutual funds platform Clearfunds, in an all-stock deal.

That deal took place after Clearfunds was introduced to Mobikwik, which is not a portfolio company of Alteria Capital, through the Activate platform. Additionally, digital lending platform ZestMoney has partnered with AutomataPi, a cognitive business process automation company, to automate certain crucial customer-facing business processes for the Xiaomi and PayU-backed company.

“The boardroom conversations across large corporates are increasingly about how to engage with the startup ecosystem in order to in-source innovation. What we are doing really is to translate these conversations into real action,” Hattangdi said.