Former BharatPe COO Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl Floats INR 120 Cr Early Stage VC Fund

BharatPe’s former chief operating officer Druv Dhanraj Bahl has rolled out his maiden venture capital fund to invest in early stage startups.

The fund, Eternal Capital, with a target corpus of INR 120 Cr (~ $14.3 Mn), aims to back 40 early stage startups over the next three years.

The fund also includes a green-shoe option of another INR 120 Cr, bringing its total capacity to INR 240 Cr.

Founded by Bahl in 2023, Eternal Capital is a sector-agnostic early stage VC fund that aims to build a diversified portfolio of “solutions for the future”.

The fund has already secured commitments from other startup founders and CXOs, including former Suhail Sameer, former CEO of BharatPe; Deep Kalra, founder of MakeMyTrip; Tarun Mathur, cofounder of PolicyBazaar; Vikas Gupta, CEO of VLCC; Adarsh Menon, President of ZoomCar’ Nalin Negi, CEO of BharatPe; Sameer Chugh, founder of Mosambee; and Saurabh Vashishtha, Kunal Suri, and Amit Bagaria cofounders of SimSim, among others.

“We are one of the first & few operator-led VC firms in India. Globally, operator-led funds have outperformed more traditional peers due to their ability to connect easily, engage deeply, and add incremental value to the founders and the ventures they back. Our approach to date has been no different making us not only a ‘partner of first choice’ for founders but also, the preferred co-investment partner for other funds,” Bahl said.

Bahl stepped down as COO of BharatPe in August 2023 to pursue his entrepreneurial journey.

He has been an angel investor since 2020, having backed over 50 startups such as Stupa Sports Analytics, Basic Home Loans, ApniBus, Volt Money, DrinkPrime, AdmitKard, GenWise, Vama, and Fleek, among others.

The development comes at a time when several VC firms have announced funds for homegrown startups amid a rise in digital adoption and disposable income in the country. India’s flourishing tech ecosystem presents a lucrative opportunity for investors.

As many as 63 funds worth $5 Bn were launched in 2023 to back Indian startups, while another 126 funds worth $18 Bn were launched in 2022.

Earlier this week, Mumbai-based VC firm IvyCap Ventures marked the final close of its third fund at INR 2,100 Cr, with plans to invest in 25 early-stage startups.

It’s worth noting Bahl is latest in the series of former BharatPe executives who have quit the fintech startup since 2022 to launch their own ventures.

Recently, BharatPe cofounder and former managing director Ashneer Grover took the fintech route again with the launch of ZeroPe, Grover’s second venture under the banner of his company Third Unicorn.

Furthermore, Tanmay Sagar and Satyam Nathani, founding members of BharatPe, along with Bhavik Koladiya, former cofounder and tech lead of BharatPe, launched a fintech SaaS platform OTPless.