InnoVen Capital India Fund Announces First Close At INR 740 Cr While the fund is stage and sector agnostic, the primary focus will be on sectors such as consumer internet, B2B commerce, enterprise software, fintech, healthtech, and logistics
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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InnoVen Capital India Fund, a Category II, SEBI registered AIF recently announced the first close of its new fund at approximately INR 740 crore ($100 million equivalent). The fund has a target corpus of INR 1,000 crore, with a greenshoe option to raise an additional INR 1000 crore. The first close was done with anchor investor, Innoven Capital Pte Ltd, a joint venture between Seviora (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek) and United Overseas Bank.
While the fund is stage and sector agnostic, the primary focus will be on sectors such as consumer internet, B2B commerce, enterprise software, fintech, healthtech, and logistics. With the first close now achieved, the fund will start deploying and already has a healthy pipeline of opportunities.
"India is now home to more than 50 unicorns and the third-largest venture eco-system globally. Over the years, we have been fortunate to partner with some of the best founders and start-ups, including 17 that have achieved unicorn status. Our portfolio companies have raised over $20 billion of external capital and now valued at over $70 billion. We are thankful to our anchor investors for demonstrating their confidence in the team and look forward to bring in other investors as well," said Ashish Sharma, managing director, chief executive officer, InnoVen Capital.
"At InnoVen, we continue to champion the rise of entrepreneurship and be an active participant in the growth of the venture eco-system. The new fund will help us to engage with even more start-ups and to continue to build out a truly, unique platform which collaborates with the best founders and Investors," shared TaranaLalwani, director, InnoVen Capital.
In India, it has executed over 250 transactions with more than 180 start-ups. Since 2017, the platform has disbursed approximately $ 400 million to Indian start-ups. Portfolio companies have raised over $20 billion of external capital and are now valued at over $70 billion.
"With record fundraising and a vibrant IPO market, we expect a multi-fold increase in the formation of new start-ups, which will lead to higher demand for venture debt in the future. Venture debt is now an integral part of financing rounds and founders have a good appreciation of the product. We have built a robust pipeline and expect to start disbursing from the fund soon," added Sameer Mansukhani, senior director, InnoVen Capital.
InnoVen has backed some leading startups in the country including Byjus, Swiggy, Oyo Rooms, Eruditus, DailyHunt, PharmEasy, Infra.Market, Zetwerk, Moglix, FirstCry, BharatPe, boAT, Licious, Blackbuck, Rebel Foods, Ofbusiness, and many more.
