InCred Alternative Investments, which is part of the InCred Group, on Thursday, said it has launched its maiden private equity fund with a target of up to Rs 500 crore ($60.2 million).
The InCred Growth Partners Fund-I (IGPF-I) aims to invest in privately owned companies across the consumer, financial services, technology and enterprise services sectors.
DealStreetAsia had reported in November last year that InCred Alternative Investments has secured approval from India’s capital markets watchdog SEBI to launch its debut private equity fund. Sources had mentioned at the time that the fund would target a corpus of Rs 500 crore.
In October last year, Vivek Singla, Managing Partner & CIO (Private Equity) at Incred Alternative Investments, had told DealStreetAsia that the idea behind the PE fund “is to run concentrated strategies and invest in no more than 7-9 high-conviction companies”.
With the new fund, the company said it will invest in a mix of companies at the Series B and Series C stages and will allow high networth individuals (HNIs), family offices, as well as institutional investors to access compelling opportunities in private markets.
The fund is being led by Singla, who has earlier had stints at Avendus PE Investment Advisors and CLSA Capital Partners.
Founded by Bhupinder Singh in 2016, and backed by investors such as KKR, TRS, ADIA, Investcorp, OAKS, Moore Capital, Ranjan Pai and Gaurav Dalmia, the InCred group has two distinct businesses—InCred Finance, which is an NBFC, and InCred Capital, which is an institutional, wealth management, and asset management platform.
This is the Mumbai-headquartered firm’s third alternatives strategy after its Structured Credit Fund and Liquid Quant Fund strategies in the last two years.
Despite the current gloom in the global economy, a host of investors are currently raising capital to invest in companies in India, hoping to generate multiples in the years to come.
“Regarding the current macro conditions, we are not too perturbed,” Singla said in Oct, as “transient disruptions may happen at any time and are unlikely to alter India’s long-term trajectory”. While it’s not easy for first-time funds to raise capital, InCred as a group as well as the fund manager is not new to the private markets, Singla had said.