Caspian Debt, the lending arm of impact investment firm Caspian Impact Investment Adviser, has announced the elevation of Avishek Gupta as its managing director and chief executive officer.
Gupta joined Caspian as an investment manager in 2014 and has played different roles. Prior to this, he had worked at a financial services platform-Northern Arc Capital, for two years. Since 2019, he has been associated with Dvara Trust which is a private trust as a trustee and member.
Meanwhile, Caspian Debt’s founder S Viswanatha Prasad has moved to his new role as the head of the board.
“I am pleased to hand over reins of Caspian Debt to Avishek Gupta, who has been with us for over seven years. As investment director, Avishek has spearheaded our foray into newer sectors, products and made data and technology central to our growth and risk management," said Prasad.
Gupta brings with him several years of experience in financial services and has been instrumental in setting up Caspian’s startup and social enterprises lending business.
Narayan Ramachandran has been chairing Caspian Debt’s board for the last three years and he will continue to be on the board and chairman of the audit committee.
Caspian Debt is a digital corporate lending company that offers custom debt solutions to professionally managed small or mid-market companies and start-ups founded by first-generation entrepreneurs. The company was set up to fill the gap for non-dilutive funding available for first-generation entrepreneurs.
Over the last eight years, Caspian has disbursed debt over Rs 2000 crore to over 170 companies, supporting the creation of more than 51,000 jobs, the company claimed in a statement.
Last year, Caspian Debt partnered with Chennai-based social enterprises incubator Villgro to provide debt solutions to impact-focused startups.
In May 2020, Caspian Debt raised $20 million (Rs 151.14 crore at current exchange rates) as long-term debt from the US International Development Finance Corporation (USIDFC), an arm of the US government that provides finance to impact-oriented projects.
In June 2021, Caspian Impact Investment told VCCircle about the launch of its fifth fund. Earlier, it invested in Moneyboxx Finance Ltd, a small and medium enterprise-focused non-banking financial company, along with other investors.
