SaaS-focused venture capital firm Cornerstone Ventures has marked its third exit with divestment of investment in debt management startup CreditNirvana with over 55 per cent IRR (internal rate of return) following its recent acquisition by financial services technology company Perfios. The fund had put $2 million in the company across its seed and Series A rounds between 2020 and 2024.
IRR is the annualized rate of return investors expect to earn on their investment, assuming all cash flows are reinvested at the same rate.
“It marks our third exit via acquisition, and we are proud to have supported AI/ML-driven innovations like CreditNirvana. The exit has generated a strong IRR (over 55 per cent) and delivered rapid returns to investors. We are also pleased to see CreditNirvana join Perfios, a company poised to set new industry benchmarks as it moves toward an IPO,” said Vatsal Bavishi, Partner at Cornerstone Ventures.
The latest exit is from Cornerstone’s first fund of $50 million raised in 2019, which scaled to a portfolio count of 21 companies. The previous exits made by Cornerstone were from, first, customer data platform Wigzo Technologies in 2021 after it was acquired by logistics company Shiprocket and, second, from e-commerce intelligence platform Intelligence Node in 2024 following its acquisition by the US-based marketing solutions provider Interpublic Group in 2024.
The Indian venture capital ecosystem is evolving rapidly, with strong value propositions driving competitive exit valuations. As enterprise tech sees increasing consolidation and acquisitions, the exit assumes significance in the growing exit maturity.
The three successful exits have returned more than 30 per cent of the first fund by Cornerstone to its investors.
Founded in 2019, CreditNirvana currently manages over $9 billion in loan portfolios across 42 million accounts. Its acquisition by Perfios improves the latter’s capabilities in collections and debt management. With lenders in India spending reportedly over $7 billion annually on debt recovery and collections, the buyout is expected to help Perfios tap into a high-growth market with a full-stack approach to financial services.
