Chiratae closes debut growth fund on $122m
India’s Chiratae Ventures has closed its debut late-stage VC fund with about INR 10bn (USD 122.3m) in commitments, beating a target of INR 7.5bn.
It follows a first close of INR 7.6bn last November that included contributions from State Bank of India, IIFL Wealth & Asset Management, Pratithi, the family office of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, and Choksi Family Office, which was established by the promoters of Asian Paints. There was a greenshoe of INR 7.5bn.
Further support came from 57 Stars, Axis Bank, as well as other existing investors. Chiratae’s LP base has historically featured global development finance institutions and domestic counterparts such as Small Development Bank of India, as well as corporate investors like Cisco Investments.
Most of Chiratae’s capital has historically come from local investors, although there have been efforts to diversify. To this end, there have been plans to open an office in the US, likely Silicon Valley, since at least 2019.
The fourth flagship early-stage fund closed on USD 337m in August 2021, beating a target of USD 275m. Fund V is expected to launch in the near term, seeking USD 500m. There are currently USD 1.1bn in assets under management across six funds.
Chiratae was founded in 2006 as IDG Ventures India by Sudhir Sethi, T.C.M. Sundaram, and Manik Arora. It rebranded and adopted the current name formally in 2018. The word Chiratae means "leopard" in various south Indian languages.
The firm has made more than 130 investments to date - with eight companies going on to achieve unicorn status - and realised 48 exits, including three IPOs. It has claimed to be the only Indian VC firm to have returned capital to LPs for nine consecutive years.
Standout investees include mother-and-baby supplier Firstcry, online clothing retailer Myntra, insurance comparison portal PolicyBazaar, and Uniphore, a speech recognition technology company that raised a USD 400m Series E round last year.
The new fund will focus on companies at the Series C stage and beyond, backing 15-20 in total. The strategy is sector-agnostic with technology as a common theme. Consumer, media, healthcare, software, and financial services have historically been areas of interest.
Chiratae described its first “growth-led” investment as a INR 1bn investment in eyewear chain Lenskart. That was part of an approximately USD 40m round last November featuring Axis Asset Management and DSP Mutual. Lenskart sold a 10% stake to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority last March for USD 500m.
Chriatae previously participated in late-stage rounds via its flagship vehicles, for example, Uniphore’s USD 140m Series D in 2021.
“With the Growth Fund-I, we are well-positioned to continue to support promising start-ups through their growth journey and create value for all stakeholders by becoming market leaders,” Sundaram said in a statement.
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