Anicut Capital Receives Over INR 30 Cr Commitment From HDFC AMC’s Fund Of Fund

Alternative financing firm (AIF) Anicut Capital has received a commitment of over INR 30 Cr from HDFC AMC’s Fund of Fund with possible additional allocation in the near future.

HDFC AMC’s Select AIF FOF-I, which invests in category I and II venture capital/private equity-oriented AIFs, made this investment in Anicut Capital.

The AIF will deploy the capital through its equity fund, Grand Anicut Fund 3, which was launched in June 2022.

Anicut Equity Fund has already invested over INR 150 Cr in six startups including Blue Tokai, Earth Rhythm, Neeman’s, XYXX, Wheelocity, and The Ayurveda Experience. 

The VC fund said it would now pursue early growth investments across 12-14 startups, within the Anicut portfolio and beyond, to deploy the capital.

Anicut Equity Fund focuses on varied sectors, including consumer, internet, technology and B2B.

“At Anicut Capital’s Equity Fund, our goal is to provide fuel to businesses demonstrating robust growth across sectors in the country. With this commitment, we are empowered to elevate our investment journey to the next level and actively seek game-changing early growth investment opportunities in the market,” said Dhruv Kapoor, partner at Anicut Capital.

Anicut Equity Fund was launched with a total corpus of INR 500 Cr, including an additional INR  250 Cr green shoe option. So far, Anicut Equity Fund has already secured INR 320 Cr, which also includes institutional investments of INR 75 Cr from Self Reliant India Fund (SRI) and INR 50 Cr from SIDBI’s Fund of Funds for Startups.

In fact, Anicut Capital secured the investment from SIDBI in September this year. Prior to that, the investment from the SRI Fund came in January this year.

Founded in 2016 by Ashvin Chadha and IAS Balamurugan, Anicut Capital manages multiple AIFs across both debt and equity strategies. It currently manages three debt funds – GAF-1, GAF-2, and GAF-4, a seed fund (GAAF), and an early growth equity fund (GAF-3).

Speaking on the latest fund infusion, Ashvin Chadha, founding partner at Anicut Capital, said, “We continue to see tremendous investment opportunities in India driven by the country’s structural growth drivers and our long-term investment outlook continues to remain positive.”

We must note that despite the ongoing funding winter in the Indian startup ecosystem, several VC, PE firms, and angel investors including Aeravti Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Arkam Ventures, and Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma have launched funds this year. Overall, funds worth $5 Bn have been announced for Indian startups since January this year.