Based in Gurugram, Grip Invest, a digital platform that facilitates retail investors to make small ticket investments in physical assets that earn lease income has raised its first round of equity funding.

The capital raise round was led by Anicut Angel Fund, a Chennai based VC fund sponsored by Anicut Capital which also manages two SME debt funds with $100 million AUM. The round also saw participation from Gemba Capital and angel investors such as Anupam Mittal, Sunjay Kapur, and Maninder Gulati.

Grip Investment was founded in June 2020 by second time entrepreneurs Nikhil Aggarwal and Vivek Gulati. The company has created an easy to use platform that offers curated opportunities for individuals to invest in physical assets like vehicles,

equipment and furniture, which are leased to corporates, to earn great returns. Grip Invest has partnered with leasing companies such as Furlenco, Zypp, Rentsher, Clairco etc.

“We continue to see over 15 percent week-on-week growth in new investing users, close to 50 percent repeat investment rate as well as great traction for leasing opportunities, including with large ventures like Bounce, Rentomojo and Furlenco. It is also rewarding to see companies being able to leverage our platform to scale their business faster without worrying about equity dilution and at a cost that meets their unit economic targets,” said Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Grip Invest.

Speaking about the investment, IAS Balamurugan, partner, Anicut Capital, said, “Investment platforms are going through a rapid transformation in India. First, it was the growth of roboadvisory, stock trading and digital wealth platforms and the next wave is that of new investment products like Grip.

Given the innovation that has happened and is happening across fintech, we also see Grip’s business scaling faster as they leverage other online distribution platforms and the growing customer appetite and awareness for different types of investments.”

Grip Invest intends to utilize the capital to scale its platform and will leverage its investors’ deep understanding of fintech business models, credit processes and network of potential users according to a company statement.