Exclusive: Slice raises debt from Stride Ventures

Consumer lending and payments startup, Slice (GIPL) has raised Rs 75 crore or $9 million in debt from Stride Ventures. This is the maiden funding for the fintech unicorn in 2023.

The company has passed a special resolution to allot 7,500 non-convertible debentures at an issue price of Rs 1,00,000 per share to raise Rs 75 crore or $9 million, the regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies shows.

The debentures issued by the company are non-convertible and have an interest rate of 14.25% per annum. The tenure decided in the allotment is of 15 months.

This debt round may go up to Rs 300 crore or $35 million, a separate regulatory filing shows.

Last month, Slice and North East Small Finance Bank (NESFB) announced their merger in a move to expand their financial accessibility. In March, Slice already acquired a 5% stake in Guwahati-headquartered bank for about $3.42 million. This roughly valued the small finance bank at $68.4 million.

Slice has raised $340 million to date and was valued at over $1.5 billion during the Series C round in November 2021. As per data intelligence platform TheKredible, Gunosy Capital is the largest stakeholder in the company with a 14.84% stake. The company’s co-founder Rajan Bajaj holds 8.21% stake. The complete shareholding pattern can be checked here.

The firm is yet to file its FY23 numbers but Entrackr’s sources outline that its revenue jumped almost three-fold and stood at around Rs 870 crore in FY23. Its operating revenue grew 4.18X to Rs 283.08 crore during FY22 from Rs 67.7 crore in FY21 while Slice losses also surged 2.52X to Rs 253.67 crore in FY22.