We’re breaking down a growing asset class that is vital in emerging markets but doesn’t get nearly enough airtime: venture debt. Every founder knows the equity story — raise a round, give up ownership, repeat, until you hopefully have some big exit that returns money back to you & your investors. But there’s a whole other playbook, one where you extend runway, fund growth, and protect your cap table without selling another piece of the company. In markets like India, venture debt has become a genuine growth engine for startups, and has been a growing industry, reflective of the growth of the venture capital space overall. In 2025, India’s venture debt market reached $1.3 billion via 187 deals, a big increase from $80M in 2018 with just 56 deals. There’s much to learn from the venture debt evolution in India, especially for more nascent markets like Pakistan.There’s no better person to unpack it than our guest Punit Shah, Managing Partner at Alteria Capital — India’s largest venture debt fund, with well over half a billion dollars under management and a portfolio that includes names like Zepto, Infra.Market, and Dunzo. Before Alteria, Punit spent years at InnoVen Capital building some of the earliest venture debt relationships in the country. Very few people have watched this asset class grow up quite like he has, and we break down the space and his lessons in this episode.