Auxano Capital Launches $25 Mn Category 1 Fund; Eyes Investments In Sustainable Mobility

Early-stage venture capital (VC) firm Auxano Capital has launched its $25 Mn Category 1 fund, which will be raised through its network of high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), ultra HNIs (UHNIs) and family offices.

Auxano Capital plans to utilise the funds in line with its investment thesis and allocation strategy, which are either based on business classification that is category creator, market creator and market owner, or stage of the business that is seed, pre-Series and Series A/Series B, the VC firm said in a statement.

With its fund ‘Auxano Entrepreneur Trust’, the firm is looking to actively invest in the emerging megatrends across fintech, enterprise SaaS, sustainable mobility and agritech.

Auxano Capital believes in the emerging segment of sustainable mobility or specifically, the electric vehicle (EV) and its ancillary segments, and a few of its upcoming investments would be in that category, its cofounder and Chief Investment Officer Brijesh Damodaran told Inc42.

Auxano Capital expects to achieve the fund’s first close by the end of the current quarter.

Speaking about the latest fund launch, Damodaran said that the VC firm’s investment thesis has primarily revolved around investing in next-gen technology-led and consumer-focused businesses driven by the subscription economy. 

“With this new set of funds, we have a deployment period of 18 months and we aim to drive growth of the budding entrepreneurs & companies in every stage of their entrepreneurial journey,” he said. “Presently, we are also in the process of finalising the right set of partners for the fund who we would be keen to onboard with us on this exciting journey.”

The Gurugram-based VC firm was incorporated in 2016. So far, it has invested in over 20 startups, with a corpus of more than $7.5 Mn through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and its funds. Drone startup Aarav Unmanned Systems, edtech startup Edukemy, and genomics startup Clevergene, among others, are part of its portfolio.

The VC firm said it has also launched ‘Auxano Dawn Fund’, a Category 2 Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with a corpus of about $25 Mn, which is proposed to be deployed over the next 30 months.

In April this year, telecom startup WIOM raised $4 Mn in a seed funding round which also saw participation from Auxano Capital.

Last year, along with Edukemy, Auxano Capital was also part of edtech startup Expertrons’ $2.3 Mn pre-Series A funding round.

It is pertinent to note that amid the global economic slowdown and fears of an impending recession, the total funding raised by Indian startups in April-June period of 2022 plummeted 42% to $6.8 Bn from $11.8 Bn in Q1, as per an Inc42 report.