B Capital raises $250m for global early-stage fund
Los Angeles and Singapore-headquartered B Capital Group has closed its first dedicated early-stage fund with USD 250m in commitments. It will target the US and Asia.
The vehicle, known as Ascent Fund, was launched in March of last year with initial commitments of USD 126.3m, according to a filing. It will make pre-seed through Series A-stage investments and leverage a portfolio support partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Raj Ganguly, a co-founder of B Capital, told AVCJ last year that BCG’s strategic services had been part of his firm’s attraction to LPs.
B Capital is best known for being set up by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Ganguly, previously of Bain Capital and Velos Capital. Asia was always a significant part of the agenda, with the Singapore office having opened in tandem with its US bases in 2015. There are also teams in Beijing and Hong Kong.
India and Indonesia have recently been flagged as areas of expansion. Standout investments in the region to date include India’s drugstore portal PharmEasy and trucking platform BlackBuck, as well as Singapore-based auto marketplace Carro and logistics start-up Ninja Van.
Recent early-stage activity includes participation in a USD 100m Series A round for India’s FanCraze, which operates a metaverse for cricket-themed digital assets. This followed anchor contributions to a USD 87m Series B for Indonesian e-commerce marketplace Ula and a USD 50m Series B for Indian digital banking player Fi.
“It’s incredible to see the continued pace of growth and development in the early-stage ecosystem across India and Southeast Asia, spanning over 1.5bn people in the most digitally connected countries globally,” Karan Mohla, a partner at B Capital, (pictured) said in a statement.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the most ambitious founders who envision scale and disruption in parallel thus generating impactful and enduring transformation across all sectors.”
B Capital has raised two flagship multi-stage global funds, with the debut closing on USD 360m in 2018 and Fund II raising about USD 820m in 2020. A final close of $415 million was achieved last year for a late-stage follow-on fund for existing portfolio companies called Elevate. Assets under management amount to USD 6.5bn.
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