Peter Thiel-backed VC firm Valar Ventures invests in Indian fintech startup Velocity

• This is the investment firm’s first funding in India.
• Founded in early 2020 by IIT Bombay graduates – Abhiroop Medhekar, Atul Khichariya and Saurav Swaroop, Velocity enables revenue-based financing for companies.
• Revenue-based financing works as an alternative venture capital firm or a bank, which finances companies or offers credit based on their revenues.

Indian fintech startup Velocity has raised $10.3M in seed funding round led by Peter Thiel-backed venture capital (VC) firm Valar Ventures. This is the investment firm’s first funding in India.

Velocity, founded in early 2020 by IIT Bombay graduates – Abhiroop Medhekar, Atul Khichariya and Saurav Swaroop, enables revenue-based financing for companies.

Revenue-based financing works as an alternative venture capital firm or a bank, which finances companies or offers credit based on their revenues. In the format, repayments to Velocity happen as a fixed percentage of future revenues. “With Velocity, any business with digitally trackable revenues can just share access to their online data and get funded within a week,” the company claims.

Currently, the company offers credit up to ₹2 crore.

With the seed funding, the startup aims to build a strong customer base. “Having been a VC and a founder myself, I strongly felt the need to reimagine financing products for new age businesses. Incumbents fall short on the speed, efficiency and flexibility expected by today’s entrepreneurs. We want to change that,” said Abhiroop Medhekar, co-founder and chief executive at Velocity, in a statement. Medhekar had earlier worked with Elevation Capital (formerly called SAIF Partners).

The barely one year-old startup claims that it has already helped 300 businesses with their marketing and inventory spends. The firm has also launched digital marketing focused Visa corporate credit cards in partnership with SBM Bank (State Bank of Mauritius).

“As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India’s digital ecosystem is at an inflection point. We have been impressed with Velocity’s strong customer orientation and aggressive plans to build innovative financing solutions. We believe the Velocity team will empower thousands of entrepreneurs in India and we are excited to be partners with them in that,” said James Fitzgerald, a founding partner at Valar Ventures, in a statement.

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