Venture capital firm Prime Venture Partners on Wednesday announced that it has secured a $75 million first close of its $100-million fourth fund as it looks at newer areas for investment.
The investors or limited partners in the latest fund include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank Group, a top-tier university endowment, several returning family offices and institutions, and numerous global technology entrepreneurs from across the US and Southeast Asia, Prime Venture said in a statement.
In addition to its existing focus areas of fintech, edtech, healthtech, consumer internet, and global SaaS, the firm expects to expand into new areas, including decentralised finance (DeFi)/crypto, electric vehicles, and gaming infrastructure platforms, it added.
Prime Venture Partners was started by Acharya and Sanjay Swamy in 2012. In 2015, Amit Somani joined as a partner. The firm is now looking to expand its leadership team by adding a fourth partner.
“While the last decade was laying the foundation, the next decade is going to be spectacular as we witness the transformation of India to a digital superpower. We’re privileged to partner with some of the finest entrepreneurs in India and are super excited to work with many more founders of category-creating technology startups in the coming years,” said Sanjay Swamy, managing partner, Prime Venture Partners.
Prime Venture had raised $72 million for its third fund in 2018, $46 million for second fund in 2015, and $8 million for the first fund in 2012. From the first three funds, the company has invested in about 32 companies across sectors such as fintech, healthcare, SaaS, education and logistics, the firm said.
While most of Prime’s portfolio companies are focussed on the booming digital India opportunity, the firm also has several companies that target the US, middle-east and other international markets, or that initially start in India and later expand to other geographies.
Some of its portfolio companies include interactive learning startup Quizziz, security solutions provider MyGate, healthtech startup MFine, remote Patient Monitoring platform Dozee, and neobank NiYO.
Despite the pandemic, several funds in the country have either raised money or are there in the market to do so.
Last week, financial services firm Avendus achieved the first close of its Future Leaders Fund II with aggregate commitments of about $78 million (Rs584 crore).
Earlier this month, early-stage venture capital firm Stellaris Venture Partners has closed its second fund at $225 million supported by existing limited partners or backers as well as other global institutions. Venture debt firm Stride Ventures has also achieved the first close of its second fund — Stride Ventures India Fund II — securing commitments of $74 million of the targeted corpus of $135 million.
Last month, venture debt fund Trifecta Capital also raised $130 million in the first close of its maiden late-stage venture capital fund.