Waterfield Advisors, a Mumbai-based wealth advisory firm, Wednesday announced the final close of its first fund-of-funds (FoF) at about $66 million (Rs 540 crore), exceeding the firm’s initial target of Rs 500 crore.
The fund, which was launched in early 2021, marked its first close at Rs 200 crore in June last year.
According to the company’s statement, about 70% of the fund will be deployed into 5-6 PE/VC funds that focus on the early-stage venture to growth-stage private equity in India and the remaining 30% of the fund will be deployed directly in 4-5 companies as co-investments.
To date, 64% of the fund has been committed to five funds across private equity and venture capital funds with ticket sizes ranging from $5-10 million, and 6% of the fund has been invested in one company as a co-investment, the statement added.
Investors in the fund include family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and institutional investors.
“India is clearly at an inflection point of creating a sustainable and mature PE/VC ecosystem. Our endeavour is to be a one-stop solution for both domestic and international investors when it comes to investing in the growing PE/VC ecosystem,” said Siddharth Jhunjhunwala, head – fund of funds, Waterfield Fund Managers.
The Waterfield FoF platform was primarily set up to address the challenges faced by domestic investors while allocating money to PE/VC funds. The platform also seeks to institutionalise domestic capital to allow family offices and HNIs to participate in this asset class by partnering with fund managers in India with required bargaining power for certain rights like preferential economics, LPAC seat, co-investments, and pro rata in subsequent funds.
Waterfield Advisors is also looking to launch its second FoF with a corpus of $250 million and expects to make the first close by the first half of 2023, Mint reported.