What's venture debt, and when should I take it instead of - or alongside - equity?
The short answer
Venture debt is a loan from specialist lenders (Stride Ventures, Alteria, InnoVen) that extends your runway between equity rounds, usually taken right after you close an equity round since debt follows equity - the stronger your cap table, the easier the debt conversation. Use it to fund inventory build-up, a marketing push before a known revenue spike, or to buy an extra 6-9 months of runway without diluting further, not to plug a structural loss. It's cheaper than equity in dollar terms but it's still a fixed repayment obligation, so only take it against cash flow you're confident will show up.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
3 resources3 India-specific2 link-checked
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Why we picked it
An India-first CFO's guide to how venture debt actually works here - who lends it, what it costs, and why it follows equity rather than replaces it. The clearest rupee-denominated primer before you take a term sheet from a debt fund.
Why we picked it
A working database of Indian venture debt lenders - useful the moment you're ready to go shopping for term sheets instead of reading theory. Saves the founder-hours of googling each fund one by one.
Why we picked it
India's leading venture debt fund's own annual data on deal volumes, sectors and terms - the closest thing to primary-source market data on what venture debt in India actually looks like this year.
