Arkam secures $106m for debut India fund
Arkam Ventures, an Indian VC firm established by Rahul Chandra, formerly of Helion Venture Partners, has closed its debut fund on USD 106m.
LPs include UK development finance institution British International Investment, Nippon India Digital Innovation, Dubai-based Evolvence Group, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), according to an Economic Times report cited by Chandra (pictured). Global fund-of-funds and Indian family offices and high net worth individuals also participated.
Around 40% of the corpus comprises rupee-denominated capital.
Arkam launched as Unitary Helion Ventures but rebranded on achieving a first close of INR 3.25bn (USD 43m) in June 2020. At the time, the overall target was INR 7.25bn.
Chandra launched the firm in 2017 following his departure from Helion Venture. He teamed up with Bala Srivastava, formerly a partner at Kalaari Capital and another Helion Venture alumnus. The goal was to back start-ups across mobility, financial services, food, and healthcare.
Arkam has made 12 investments to date, including Krazybee, an online lending platform aimed at students, savings app Jar, agri-finance start-up Jai Kisan, and investment platforms Smallcase and Mudrex. The latter is crypto-focused. Outside of financial technology, the firm has backed Jumbotail, a B2B marketplace for fast-moving consumer goods and groceries.
Most deals fall into the pre-Series A to Series B range.
Other Helion Venture partners have also gone on to establish new GPs. Co-founder Sanjeev Aggarwal established a growth-stage technology firm The Fundamentum Partnership while fellow co-founder Kanwaljit Singh launched Fireside Ventures, which makes early-stage consumer investments.
India VC managers raised a record USD 3.2bn last year. Fundraising highlights of 2022 to date include final closes for Elevation Capital and Accel Partners of USD 670m and USD 650m, respectively, and IvyCap Ventures reaching a first close of INR 16.1bn against an overall target of INR 25bn.
Meanwhile, Chiratae Ventures is in the market seeking USD 500m for a VC and USD 200m for an opportunity vehicle.
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