Grip and VRO Hospitality join hands/ink INR 5 Crore lease financing deal

Grip, India’s leading alternative investment platform,  has partnered with VRO hospitality, a Bangalore-based hospitality chain, for a lease financing deal of INR 5 CR. As part of this deal, Grip will provide its 200K+ retail investors a lucrative opportunity to invest in the hospitality space and empower the latter’s growth plans by leasing assets such as kitchen equipment, furniture & fixtures, and IT equipment.

VRO Hospitality is a unique partner for Grip and it operates in both offline and online kitchen space. It seeks to become a hybrid global F&B platform, offering a world-class dining experience to its customers, expanding its presence in 4 more cities namely, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, and Dubai. It owns and operates well-known F&B brands such as Cafe Noir, Caperberry, Taki Taki, Mirage, Hangover, Badmaash, Nevermind, and Tycoons among others from Mumbai, Bangalore, and Goa currently.

Speaking on the development,  Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Grip, said, “ In India, the revenue in the Food and Beverage industry is expected to show an annual growth rate of 14.2%, primarily driven by growing urbanization and surging young population demands. Lease Financing plays an important role in enabling this growth. It can meet different forms of capital requirements and unlock potential growth. We are excited to collaborate with VRO and hope to drive significant growth in the segment.”

Founded by Dawn Thomas, Safdhar Adoor and Sharath Rice, VRO Hospitality operates multi-format restaurants, cafes and lounges across 18 outlets in Bengaluru. Apart from its offline brands, VRO recently announced its foray into the F&B D2C space with spices and other food products.

Sharath Rice, Co-Founder and Director, VRO Hospitality said, “It is an exciting time to be in the F&B space and the hybrid nature of our operations will help us own the offline-online experience. With new and innovative concepts to serve the ever-growing appetite of our customers, we are happy to partner with a company like Grip to provide an investment opportunity to retail investors. With alternative finance options that Grip provides, we are able to focus on our growth and expansion in cities, domestic and international.”

With the growing interest and participation of retail investors, Grip, which was founded in June 2020, has raised over INR 206 crore investments for over 80+ companies, providing an average return of 21% IRR on the opportunities listed on its platform. The company has listed more than 100 deals on its platform while reporting zero default on returns promised.