ICICI Venture is in the process of closing India Advantage Fund VII (Mezzanine Fund 1), India’s first Mezzanine fund. The corpus of the fund is roughly USD 51 million.

About Mezzanine Finance

Mezzanine finance typically is a structured debt-like instrument, with a component of cash income and benefits from enhanced returns from equity-linked component. It often bridges the gap in corporate capital structure between senior debt and equity. Mezzanine offers flexibility to meet both the investor’s and investee company’s requirements and also provides medium to long term capital without significant ownership dilution.

The Mezzanine team seeks to provide funds for financing various areas including:

Buyouts, merger and acquisitions
Growth for medium-sized businesses
Asset backed businesses such as real estate or financial markets

Given its structure and flexibility, mezzanine financing can be an extremely useful financing option for a growing economy such as India.