India's Paragon closes first fund at $120m

LPs in Paragon Partners Growth Fund I include a sovereign wealth fund, a development finance institution, fund-of-funds, insurance companies and family offices, along with high net worth individuals. Domestic investors India Infoline, Edelweiss and Kotak Mahindra-affiliated Infina Finance Private were previously announced as LPs, as well as Fairfax.

The vehicle will seek investments in the consumer, financial services, infrastructure, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors. According to a release, Paragon will take an active role in value creation through operational efficiencies and organizational improvements, as well as locating business opportunities.

The vehicle launched in 2015 with a target of $200 million and reached a first close the following year of $50 million. Its first investment was in Capacite Infraprojects, a construction company to which the firm committed $15 million across two rounds in 2016.

Capacite later won backing from NewQuest Capital Partners and Infina and raised INR4 billion ($62 million) in its oversubscribed IPO earlier this year, in which its investors retained their stakes. The company debuted at INR341.25, a significant premium to the IPO price of INR250, and rose as high as INR382.25 in early November, though it had returned to INR343.55 by November 20.

Paragon also led a funding round for domestic engineering components supplier Maini Precision Products last year. The firm and unidentified co-investors committed INR1.1 billion through a mix of primary and secondary shares.

Paragon was founded by Siddharth Parekh, a former investment principal at Actis, and entrepreneur Sumeet Nindrajog. The firm typically invests $10-15 million per transaction and targets significant minority ownership stakes.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Growth
• GPs
• India
• Paragon Partners