8i Ventures Launches Its Second Fund After slice, M2P Success

Neobanking Startup Chqbook Raises INR 40 Cr From Aavishkaar, Rajiv Dadlani Group

SUMMARY

8i Fund II will raise a corpus of $50 Mn dollars that will be invested in early stage startups with a ticket size of $500k to $5 Mn

The venture capital firm’s portfolio includes the likes of slice, M2P, EaseBuzz, Blue Tokai and Bbetter.

The last week of November saw the Indian startup ecosystem raising funds worth $1.8 Bn across 38 deals.

Early-stage venture capital (VC) fund 8i Ventures has launched 8i Fund II—a corpus of $50 Mn that comes after the $13 Mn 8i Fund I. Fund I had startups like slice, M2P, EaseBuzz and Blue Tokai on its portfolio.

Founded in 2019 by entrepreneur and angel investor Vikram Chachra and Vishwanath V, 8i has funded seven early-stage startups including Difenz (digital risk and fraud management), EaseBuzz (online payment collector) and Bbetter (Indian supplements brand).

8i Fund II is targeted at investing in a larger portfolio, with higher ownership. The bigger fund will allow the VC firm to make bigger bets while remaining focused on early-stage startups. The ticket size of investments will range between $500k and $5 Mn depending on the growth stage and maturity of the company. 8i Ventures expects the first close of the fund during the first quarter of 2022.

‘We now have the firepower to lead Seed and A deals and support our companies till they break out and attract late-stage VCs’, says Vikram Chachra, founding partner at 8i Ventures.

According to the VC firm, three out of six startups seeded by Fund I have multiplied their GMV by between 7x and 28x in the last eighteen months. It expects several Fund I companies to achieve initial public offering (IPO) scale in the next 24-36 months.

Bengaluru-based fintech startup slice, part of 8i Fund I portfolio, became a unicorn last month after raising $220 Mn in its Series B round led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners at a billion-dollar valuation.

Advent International’s Sunley House capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa Gunopsy, and existing investors Blume Ventures and 8i also participated in slice’s Series B round.

8i Ventures led the seed funding rounds for payments startups M2P and EaseBuzz. According to the firm, M2P’s valuation has grown 30x since 8i seeded it in January 2020. EaseBuzz, in the meanwhile, is preparing for an IPO, 24 months after 8i led its seed round.

After a significant drop in investments in the penultimate week of November, the Indian startup ecosystem ended the month on a high note with investments totalling about $1.8 Bn made across 38 deals.

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