Alteria Capital invests Rs 8.5 crore in Mumbai food startup Fingerlix

MUMBAI: Less than a month after the first close of its maiden Rs 1,000-crore fund, venture debt firm Alteria Capital made its first investment in ready-to-cook food brand Fingerlix.

The Mumbai-based startup, which is backed by Accel Partners and Zephyr Peacock, raised Rs 8.5 crore in its first debt financing exercise.

With this, the total capital raised by Fingerlix reached Rs 71.5 crore, including equity and debt. Fingerlix will use the proceeds to build production capacity for its existing presence in the country’s top six cities. The firm, which has a kitchen in Mumbai, will build one in Delhi immediately and follow it up with another for the southern market.


“The investment in Fingerlix represents the ideal type of transaction that we will seek out of a high-quality business with the potential to generate high returns, being driven by a great team and strong investor support,” Alteria Capital managing partner Ajay Hattangdi said.

Fingerlix will use a portion of the fund to also boost its distribution channel and increase presence in retail and other distribution outlets.

As the consumer brand and FMCG play in the Indian startup ecosystem grows, both equity and debt investors are looking to build significant portfolios in the space. “India has been starved of a lot of good quality brands. While we are sector agnostic, the consumer pipeline for Alteria Capital is quite strong and will be evident in the deals to come,” said Vinod Murali, also a managing partner at the venture debt firm.

Fingerlix currently has about 15 SKUs (stock keeping units) with fresh batter forming just shy of 50% of its revenue pie. But beyond fresh foods, the firm is also looking to invest some of the capital raised in newer products in snacking where it sees a huge opportunity

As on October last year, the company clocked sales of about 6,000 units per day, touching over Rs 12 crore in annual revenues.

Having invested in Byju’s, Swiggy, OYO Rooms, Yatra, Freecharge, Pepperfry, Myntra, Practo and Capillary in their previous roles, the management team at Alteria Capital is eyeing a deployment pace of Rs 300-400 crore in 2018 with the fund looking to invest Rs 2,000 crore in startups over the next four years.