Elev8 targets $200m for India growth-stage fund
Elev8 Venture Partners, a newly established Indian growth-stage investor, has launched its debut fund with a target of USD 200m.
“This will also be India's first pro rata fund which will partner with leading seed funds and super angels to invest in winners of their portfolio companies,” Navin Honagudi, co-founder and general partner at Elev8, said in a social media post.
Honagudi was an investor at Kae Capital, a seed-stage firm where he continues to participate as a venture partner. He noted that Kae founder Sasha Mirchandani helped conceptualise Elev8 with support from investors representing Nexus Venture Partners, 9Unicorns, and longstanding incubator Venture Catalysts.
Elev8 is expected to make deployments of up to USD 15m in Series B or C rounds with a sector-agnostic mandate. Deal sourcing will leverage an accelerator and seed network that is estimated to have missed out on some USD 500m in pro-rata investment opportunities in 2021 due to lack of growth-stage access.
“Even though liquidity in technology investments is drying up, Elev8 has received overwhelming LP interest as well as partnership avenues with seed funds, as the current vintage offers an excellent opportunity to invest in growth stage companies and earn/target attractive returns,” Honagudi said.
“We are in an advanced stage of discussions to establish several global partnerships, which going forward will help our portfolio companies expand beyond India during their growth phase.”
It comes amid an apparent expansion of India’s seed and angel space, with recent fundraising activity confirmed by the likes of Fundamental VC, Inflection Point Ventures, Artha Venture Fund, Indian Angel Network, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge accelerator, and Merak Ventures, a spinout of GrowX Ventures.
Last month, Billionaire Venture Capital and DBS Bank agreed to invest USD 200m in 150m seed-stage start-ups in India, also leveraging a relationship with Venture Catalysts. The joint venture will also tap the resources of AIC Raise, a sustainability-focused incubator.
Elev8 Venture Partners is not to be confused with Singapore’s Elev8.vc, a deep tech-focused VC firm, or Australia’s Elev8 Venture Capital, also known as Elev8 Ventures.
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