Venture capital firm A91 Partners, floated by former Sequoia Capital executives, has reportedly reached the final close of its second fund by garnering $525 million in capital commitments.
The sponsors or limited partners in the fund include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and financial services major Allianz group, The Economic Times reported. The firm has also brought on board a few new endowment funds.
A91 Partners has already deployed $250 million of the second fund across 11 investments so far. While A91 will continue to cut cheques averaging $30 million, it may also look to support more technology firms through its latest fund, the report said.
A91 was set up by VT Bharadwaj, Abhay Pandey, and Gautam Mago, all of whom left Sequoia in 2018 to launch the fund. The firm is focused on making mid-stage investments, in Series B and Series C deals of $10-30 million. Its target sectors include consumer goods and services, healthcare, financial services, and technology.
The firm’s second fund is nearly 50% larger compared to its maiden one that raised $351 million in July 2019. From the first fund, its investments include Sugar Cosmetics, consumer appliance startup Atomberg Technologies, and Hector Beverages, the owner of health beverage brand Paper Boat.
This June, A91 Partners invested in the $6 million funding round of cloud telephony platform Exotel. In March, the firm invested $41 million in location-based social network public app.
A number of India-focused venture capital firms have reached major milestones in their fundraising efforts recently.
Earlier this week, venture capital firm Prime Venture Partners secured $75 million in the first close of its $100 million fourth fund. 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).
Stellaris Venture Partners has also closed its second fund at $225 million, much higher than it had planned, supported by existing limited partners or backers as well as other global institutions.