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Clensta, a startup in personal care and home care space backed by IIT Delhi, on Wednesday said it has raised Rs 5 crore from N+1 Capital.

The fund will be utilised for scaling up upcoming products for homecare category, Clensta said in a statement.

The company recently entered into a strategic tie-up with pharma firm Cipla for its first commercialised products ”Waterless Bodybath and Waterless Shampoo”, it added.

Commenting on the fundraise, Clensta International CEO and Founder, Puneet Gupta, said the company already has a presence with over 500 hospitals and more than 25,000 retail outlets, including pharmacies, and is now looking to penetrate through direct to consumer channels as well.

“This debt fund helps us grow further and reach out to consumers at a faster pace. Also (it) provides us the opportunity to expand offline as well as online (and) cover all important aspects of sales channel,” he added.

N+1 Capital said Clensta is focused to exceed core financial goals; organic sales growth, earnings per share growth and adjusted free cash flow productivity, while improving market share and generating leadership levels of shareholder value creation.

Revenue-based growth capital firm N+1 Capital has received approval from the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) for its first investment debt fund in order to deploy capital in India.

The vision behind these $100 million (₹730 crore) funds is to provide 100+ entrepreneurs to grow their businesses profitably and sustainably through their growth stage. 

The benefits for entrepreneurs include no personal guarantee at stake, tech-driven risk scoring model, have a greater flexibility, and constant capital infusion. It also provides credibility, assurance, builds trust and reduces the time load for due diligence for the upcoming investors.

“N+1 is sector agnostic, and the qualifying criteria are actually steady-state, as well as growing startups and MSEs with minimum monthly revenue of Rs 50 lakh, and at least 30 percent gross margin. Having said that, the fund is currently working with SaaS startups and some Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) startups,” added Rahul Chowdhury, Managing Partner, N+1 Capital.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)