India's Axilor targets $100m for second seed fund
Indian seed investor Axilor Ventures has launched its second fund with a target of USD 100m. This compares to USD 30m for its first fund.
It extends a spate of local seed fundraising activity, with Fundamental VC seeking USD 130m for its debut vehicle and angel investor platform Inflection Point Ventures targeting USD 50m.
The momentum also includes micro VC investor Artha India Ventures closing its debut fund on about USD 30m and Sequoia Capital India’s Surge program raising USD 195m. High net worth individuals and government entities have broadly defined the LP base in this space.
Axilor’s was founded in 2014 by S.D. Shibulal and Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founders of Infosys. Its debut fund closed in mid-2018 with a remit to write cheques of up to INR 30m (USD 377,500). The vehicle has invested in 54 start-ups, 21 of which have raised follow-on funding.
The new fund will write checks of up to USD 750,000 for 100 to 125 start-ups with 30% of the corpus to be deployed in existing portfolio companies. Media, consumer and enterprise technology, artificial intelligence, financial technology, healthcare, and agricultural technology are among the focus areas.
Standout investments include e-sports player Loco, which raised a USD 43m Series A round in March. Axilor was also an early investor in multi-language media app Pratilipi, which closed a USD 48m Series D last year, and diagnostics technology provider SigTuple, which has raised more than USD 40m across several rounds.
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