Over fifty limited partners (LPs) participated in the fund. More than half of the investments came from family offices, and from over 20 listed companies who participated directly or through promoter entities. Non-resident Indians, ultra-rich individuals, super angels and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) invested the remaining capital.
The fund invests in business-to-business (B2B), direct-to-consumer (D2C) sectors and D2C enablers, among others, and had targeted raising ₹200 crore. However, high investor interest and the performance of the seed prompted AVF to overshoot its target and exercise the greenshoe option, AVF said.
AVF is a Category I alternative investment fund (AIF) that invests in startups across seed, pre-Series A and Series-A levels of growth. The fund has allocated over 65% of its corpus for follow-on rounds and will make10-12 seed investments per year.
Anirudh A. Damani, managing partner, Artha Venture Fund said, “I am delighted with the confidence that our investors have shown in our investment strategy. Besides exceeding our targeted raise two months ahead of schedule, almost 50% of our first cohort of LPs doubled down on their earlier investments. Many referred us to people in their network. Their reinvestment in and promotion of our fund within their network is a clear indicator that our fund strategy and structure resonate with them at a deeper level.”
” …Our portfolio-wide revenues grew 3x in one year without raising additional capital. This frugal but explosive growth is what excites us and our investors. We will continue to scout for seed+ stage deals in our preferred investment themes of D2C, D2C enablers and B2B. Another sleeping giant that has piqued our interest in the last 12 months is the gaming sector, especially for the masses,” he added.
The entire corpus of the fund, which had started raising capital in late 2018, will be deployed in the next 24-30 months.
Vinod Keni, Growth Partner, SVF said, “…The increase in commitments by our existing limited partners further validates our execution and the market opportunity. I look forward to working with our LPs, learning and leveraging their experience, expertise and networks for the benefit of our portfolio companies.”
AVF had announced the second close of ₹100 crore of the fund in June 2019. It has invested more than 25% of the total corpus in startups such as Agnikul, LenDenClub, Kabbadi Adda, HobSpace, PiggyRide, and Daalchini. Ten of the investee companies got ₹9 crore- ₹18 crore of funding, across three rounds, based on their performance.
Separately, AVF has been broadening investment opportunities by engaging with various accelerators across the country and cumulatively (through associations and directly) plans to support 40 accelerator stage investments through small cheques written from this fund.