E18: Vinod Murali (Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Alteria Capital)

Vinod Murali is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Alteria Capital. Vinod has 15+ years of experience spanning Venture Debt, Mezzanine Capital & Structured finance, Corporate Banking and Branding. Prior to Alteria, he spent time as the Deputy CEO at InnoVen Capital India (prev. known as SVB India Finance), and before that, at Citigroup as part of the Corporate and Investment Banking Group where he managed large Corporate relationships across Auto, Healthcare and Consumer industries.

Follow Vinod (@vinodmur) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

. . .

Glossary of terms:

1. Venture debt: Venture debt is a form of debt financing for venture equity-backed companies that lack the assets or cash flow for traditional debt financing, or that want greater flexibility. It is a form of “risk capital” that is less costly than equity when structured appropriately.

2. Burn: Amount of monthly cash that a company spends

. . .

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Vinod Murali’s background and the birth of Alteria Capital (03:28)

2. Reason behind Silicon Valley Bank’s exit from India (11:20)

3. History of venture debt in India (14:44)

4. Reasons venture debt doesn’t sit well with traditional banking institutions (22:25)

5. Parallels between venture debt and equity financing (29:05)

6. How are debts structured? (33:27)

7. What are debts repaid? What is the typical interest rate? (36:00)

8. How are warrants / dilution structured? (38:01)

9. Debt arrangements that have gone well and those that haven’t and why? (40:38)

10. Why don’t debt financiers usually take board seats? (44:28)

11. Are personal guarantees eligible in a venture debt scenario? (48:00)

12. How does a deal like Dunzo come along? (49:44)

13. Rapid fire (52:36)