Nilacap Venture Trust

Nilacap Venture Trust is registered with NCGTC as a CGSS Member Institution in the fund category, the same class that covers SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds providing venture debt. Beyond that registration, very little about the entity is in the public domain: it appears in Indian AIF directories but publishes no detailed public profile, and we would rather record that plainly than fill the gap with inference.

What can be said usefully is structural. A fund on this panel is the route to CGSS umbrella-based cover rather than transaction-based cover, meaning the guarantee protects the fund against the actual losses or up to 5 percent of its pooled investment in eligible startups, whichever is lower, still capped at Rs 20 crore per borrower. If you are approaching a venture debt fund rather than a bank, that is the mechanism operating behind your facility. Contact the fund directly to establish its current mandate, ticket size and whether it is actively deploying.

Its role in the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups. Nilacap Venture Trust is one of 40 institutions registered with the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company as a CGSS Member Institution (NCGTC MLI ID 309, classified as a SEBI-registered fund). Member Institutions are the lenders that actually extend credit under the scheme: you borrow from Nilacap Venture Trust, and NCGTC guarantees it against your default. That guarantee is what allows credit to be extended to a DPIIT-recognised startup without collateral, with cover of up to Rs 20 crore per borrower, being 85 percent of the amount in default on loans up to Rs 10 crore and 75 percent above that.

The terms are the lender's, not the scheme's. CGSS fixes the guarantee, not the loan. The interest rate, tenure, moratorium, repayment schedule and how the Annual Guarantee Fee is passed on to you are all set by Nilacap Venture Trust under its own credit policy, and they differ materially between Member Institutions for an identical borrower. Registration does not oblige Nilacap Venture Trust to lend: it appraises you on its normal credit standards first and applies the guarantee second. Approaching more than one Member Institution is almost always worth the effort.