A91 Partners Hits Final Close Of Third Fund At $665 Mn

Mumbai-based growth stage investment firm A91 Partners, which counts Digit General Insurance, Aye Finance, Sugar Cosmetics and Atomberg among its portfolio companies, has announced the final close of its third fund at $665 Mn.

This marks the firms’ third fund since its founding in 2018.

“Today we are pleased to announce the closing of $665M A91 Fund III. We are incredibly grateful to both our investors and the founders that have partnered with us and continue to inspire and educate us,” A91 said in a LinkedIn post. 

With its third fund, A91 partners aims to invest in small and mid-sized companies, including sectors such as consumer, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and technology, International Finance Corporation (IFC) said last month. 

In March, it was reported that IFC is planning an equity investment of up to $35 Mn (about INR 303.9 Cr) into the firm A91 Partners’ third fund.

“IFC proposes an equity investment of up to $35 Mn in the fund (capped at 19.99% of the total commitments in the Fund and Domestic Fund). Additionally, a delegated authority co-investment envelope of an amount of up to $30 Mn in potential co-investments in the fund’s portfolio companies is being proposed alongside the fund commitment,” IFC had said in a statement.

Back then, IFC underlined plans to support the fund manager in setting up gender committees at the investee level and facilitate peer learning sessions on gender-inclusive best practices.

For A91 Partners third fund, it said that the fund is expecting to invest between $10 Mn and $50 Mn in 15 companies.

Founded in 2018, A91 Partners is an investment firm that focuses on India’s consumer, technology, financial services, and healthcare sectors. 

It was established by former Sequoia Capital executives V T Bharadwaj, Abhay Pandey and Gautam Mago, who came together to launch the venture capital firm specialising in mid-stage startups.

Fund III is the largest fund the firm has launched so far and it said that it reflects a growing interest in the Indian market among limited partners.

Notably, the VC firm closed their first fund in 2019 at $351 Mn and second fund at $550 Mn in 2021. Its portfolio includes Digit Insurance, Inshorts, Sugar, Exotel, HealthKart, Paper Boat and Plum.

VC Funds Worth Over $3.2 Bn Launched For Startups In Q1 

In the first quarter of calendar year 2025, 23 funds worth over $3.2 Bn were launched to back, as per Inc42’s ‘Indian Tech Startup Funding Report, Q1 2025’.

Among these, Accel’s eighth India fund has the largest corpus of $650 Mn (around INR 5,569.7 Cr). 

It is pertinent to note that the early stage continued to be the darling of investors in Q1. Seventeen funds worth close to $1.5 Bn were launched to invest in early stage startups during the quarter. 

However, while the country needs a focus on deeptech sectors as called out by the central government, only three out of the 23 funds launched for startups in Q1 2025 focussed on the sector. The sector includes robotics, frontier models in AI, semiconductor, EV infrastructure, next-gen healthcare, defence tech, aerospace and drones, and more.