CVCA Member Profile: Vistara Growth
We’re continuing to profile unique organizations that make up our membership. This is an opportunity to learn how they contribute to our community and advance the ecosystem.
This week we’re excited to find out more about Vistara Growth. Vistara Growth is Vancouver-based and provides flexible growth capital solutions (debt and/or equity) to mid-later-stage technology companies across North America.
The CVCA caught up with Vistara Growth to learn more about their thesis, team and what they’re excited about.
Tell us about Vistara Growth, its history, role, and vision.
- Founded in 2015, “Vistara” (Sanskrit for “expansion”), provides flexible growth capital to leading technology companies. We are unique in our ability to provide growth debt, growth equity, or any combination thereof.
- Based in Vancouver with expanding operations in Toronto, we are currently investing out of our latest Vistara Technology Growth Fund IV LP, with over $400M in overall AUM. We have invested in 29 companies over this period and have realized 11 exits in the portfolio.
- Vistara takes a tailored hands-on approach to support our portfolio company’s growth, through experience, guidance, and the network of our extended Vistara family.
What is Vistara Growth’s thesis?
- From inception, there has remained a gap in the tech financing landscape between traditional forms of debt (e.g., banks) and venture equity capital. We create tailored solutions to fill these gaps to solve for a variety of use cases including organic growth, runway extension (to profitability or exit), M&A financing, and/or early shareholder liquidity.
- We invest broadly in the technology sector, with a primary focus on B2B software / SaaS companies in high-growth sectors such as security, networking, and artificial intelligence, and in key industry verticals such as fintech and healthcare.
- We work with aspiring companies ranging from $10M-$100M in revenues, with our typical investment ranging from $5M-$30M per company. Our creative solutions have proven highly effective in helping founders and early shareholders control overall dilution while still accessing significant growth funding through a variety of cycles.
Who are the key players at Vistara Growth?
- Randy Garg, Founder, and Managing Partner has over 30 years of experience investing at all stages of tech company evolutions and through various market cycles. Learn more about Randy here.
- Noah Shipman, Partner has over 15 years experience working with technology companies including notable experience in M&A and financing transactions. Learn more about Noah here.
What is Vistara excited about (in the immediate horizon and in the long run)?
- The return of disciplined growth as a key determinant of success as opposed to “growth at all costs”. The valuation roller coaster and volatile financing environment has also prompted companies to explore a more fulsome set of financing options rather than assuming larger rounds of equity financing in quick succession.
- The recent turmoil in the banking sector for technology companies, will likely have an overall negative impact on the sector, but presents further opportunity for Vistara Growth and other alternative lenders to help fill some of the void from banks that have been lending to this sector.
- Also, of particular importance in the current equity valuation environment, our typical form of capital (i.e., debt or convertible debt) avoids the need to set price on equity until further growth is achieved, and/or market conditions improve.
- For our companies, we are very excited by their rapidly expanding market opportunities driven by to the need to achieve productivity gains, efficiencies, and overall cost savings through greater use of advanced technology.
