LENDING A HELPING HAND

While start-ups are buffeted by headwinds, Get Vantage's proposition of revenuebased financing is helping many of them survive the storm

- Ashish Rukhaiyar

IT ALL STARTEDwhen Bhavik Vasa heard about deals where founders were bartering stakes in their companies with media firms in exchange for ads and promotions on their platforms. “While scaling operations and visibility for ItzCash (acquired by Ebix in 2017 and renamed EbixCash), I came across the ‘ad for equity model’, a barter deal where media houses take a certain stake in companies in return for ads and promotions on their platform,” says Vasa, Founder and CEO of GetVantage. “When I quit EbixCash to go on a personal break, the thought of providing alternative financing to start-ups for plans that would directly impact and improve their bottom line kept lingering,” he adds.

Thus was born GetVantage in 2019, which is today a prominent revenue-based financing (RBF) platform that has funded more than 650 ventures. Its cumulative gross merchandise value (GMV) of funding stands at over $700 million. Simply put, RBF refers to a mechanism where a start-up can avail growth funding without the founders having to dilute any stake or offer any collateral.