Axilor Ventures has launched its second fund – Axilor Technology Fund II (ATF-II) – targeting to raise $100 million as it continues to focus on seed funding opportunities in India.
Axilor, which started as a technology incubator programme in 2014, moved to early-stage investing in 2018 with the launch of its Rs 200 crore first fund. The first fund has invested in 54 startups, of which 21 startups have already raised their Series A round and beyond.
Axilor’s Fund I portfolio includes the likes of Detect, Enkash, Headfone, Loco, Urban Piper, Vyapar and Wiz, among others.
With cheque sizes averaging $500,000 to $750,000, ATF-II has also set aside 30% of its corpus to back 10-12 winners from its first fund, according to media reports. On its website, Axilor claims to invest in 15-20 startups each year and invests $200,000-$500,000 through its pre-seed and seed funding programmes.
Axilor’s new fund announcement comes at a time when global funds including Sequoia, Accel, LightSpeed and Matrix Partners have either raised new funds or are in talks to raise capital to tap tech investment opportunities in India.
In a spate of recent announcements, early-stage venture capital firm Fundamental VC, founded by startup executives, launched its debut fund of $130 million last month, while Mumbai-based portfolio management service Piper Serica Advisors launched a Rs 100-crore fund to invest in 30-40 early-stage tech companies in three years.
Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the venture capital arm of the German media firm Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, also raised $500 million to invest in India over the next few years, while Ankur Capital on Friday said it is preparing to launch its third fund with a target size in the range of $125-150 million to invest in up to 25 startups.