India: Xponentia Capital marks final close of its first fund

The final close of the fund was made earlier this year, said P.R. Srinivasan, Xponentia Capital’s designated partner.

Xponentia Capital had not officially disclosed its target corpus, people familiar with the development had told VCCircle in 2018 that the private equity firm had planned to raise more than 1,000 crore.

The private equity firm could not raise more capital because of covid-19, Srinivasan said. The size of its first fund could go up to 500 crore, with co-investment by its limited partners (LPs), he said. He did not reveal information about the LPs. The new fund was expected to tap into Indian family offices and institutional investors.

The first fund has so far invested in road freight express logistics business Spoton Logistics, full-flight simulator training company Flight Simulation Technique Centre, casual dining chain Barbeque Nation, and mortgage tech startup Easy.

Earlier this month, Xponentia also marked its first exit from Spoton with more than 3.5x returns following the acquisition of the logistics company by SoftBank backed Delhivery for $235 million.

Xponentia has deployed 65% of the first fund so far, Srinivasan said. The private equity firm plans to make one more investment from the fund after which it will start contemplating the launch of a new fund. The new investment from the fund is expected to be in a company engaged in the consumer space with an e-commerce angle. The deal is likely to be completed in 40-50 days, he said.

Xponentia was founded in 2018 by Relan, Srinivasan, and Devinjit Singh.

Relan had co-founded CX Partners in 2009. He had hung up his boots in December 2015 and handed over the reins of the private equity firm to co-founder Jayanta Basu.

Srinivasan was a managing director at Citigroup Venture Capital International and quit in 2010 to raise a $100 million fund under Exponentia Capital. However, Exponentia didn’t make much headway.

Singh had quit Carlyle Group in 2018 after a decade at the buyout firm. He had been involved with investments in Housing Development Finance Corp, India Infoline, PNB Housing Finance, and SBI Cards.

This article was first published on livemint.

Go to Source