Cedar-IBSi Capital Ropes In Middle East’s Hades Finance As LP For $30 Mn Maiden Fund

Fintech-focussed venture capital (VC) firm Cedar-IBSi Capital said it has received a sizeable commitment from Riyadh-based asset management company Hades Financial Private Capital Group (HFPCG) for its debut $30 Mn fund.

In a statement, the VC firm said that HFPCG is the second large institutional investor to join the fintech-focussed fund as a limited partner. As per the deal, the two parties will leverage each other’s expertise and network.

For the uninitiated, the fund has been floated by management consultancy firm Cedar and fintech market intelligence platform IBS Intelligence. The fund marked its first close in March this year and saw participation from two institutional investors, family offices and others. 

“We are excited to welcome a respectable institutional investor such as Hades to the Cedar-IBSi capital investor base and look forward to executing our common goal in unlocking the Indian B2B FinTech/BankTech journey…,” said Cedar-IBSi Capital founder and managing director Sahil Anand.

Commenting on the development, HFPCG co-CEO Mohammed Abrar Asif, “We are thrilled to partner with Cedar-IBSi Capital and support their mission of fostering innovation in the banktech and fintech sectors. This investment aligns perfectly with our strategy to back promising early-stage companies that are poised to disrupt traditional financial services and bring transformative solutions to the market”.

Cedar-IBSi Capital said that it is set to close its first investment and is currently mulling a second investment. As part of the fund, the VC firm will dish out cheques in the range of INR 4 Cr to INR 10 Cr and will invest in around 15 early-stage fintech startups. 

The fund will also focus on entrepreneurs building fintech startups catering to banks, enterprises and other use cases for insurance, NBFCs and other financial services players.

The development comes at a time when several VC and private equity (PE) firms are accumulating dry powder to invest in Indian startups. Despite the ongoing funding winter, 2023 saw the launch of 64 funds with a corpus of $5.6 Bn, including venture capital funds, micro-funds, and corporate VC funds. 

This momentum has continued well into 2024 also. Earlier this month, fintech startup Neo group’s asset management arm Neo Asset Management marked the final close of its maiden special credit opportunities fund at INR 2,575 Cr. In May, consumer VC fund RPSG Capital Ventures also marked the final close of its latest Fund II at INR 550 Cr.