Former BharatPe Exec’s GrowthCap Ventures Marks First Close Of Maiden Fund At INR 20 Cr

GrowthCap Ventures has marked the first close of its maiden fund at INR 20 Cr, nearly six months after the launch. The firm aims to deploy the dry powder into startups operating in the fintech, deeptech and software-as-a-service (SaaS) sectors. 

The early stage VC fund, floated by former chief business officer of BharatPe Pratekk Agarwaal,  seeks to back 10-12 startups (from seed to Pre-Series A) with an average ticket size of INR 2-6 Cr in the next 20 months. 

The vehicle is a single general partner SEBI-registered category II alternative investment fund and aims to raise a total corpus of INR 50 Cr.

The fund’s limited partners (LPs) include Beerud Sheth of Gupshup, Shankar Vailaya of ShareKhan, Naresh Naik of Irep Capital, ex-CDO Kotak Bank Deepak Sharma, and Ankur Jain of Incred, among others.

“For our inaugural fund, we have selectively garnered investments from accomplished operators who have successfully built large organisations. This exclusive funding opportunity is by invitation only,” Agarwaal, the founder and general partner at GrowthCap Ventures said. 

He added that the firm is planning to float another fund with an estimated corpus of INR 250 Cr. 

Agarwaal is an alumnus of IIM-Kozhikode and has earlier worked with companies like Bajaj Finsev, Fullerton India, Indostar Capital and BharatPe. As an angel investor, he has backed more than 35 startups, including Decentro, Vegapay, Klub, Karmalife, Fundly, Transbnk and Coverself among others. He is also an adviser to many startups.

Despite the ongoing funding winter, several new India-focussed funds have been launching their vehicle and many investors are announcing the close of their funds.

For instance, in December last year, Indian Angel Network (IAN), which has backed startups like Clensta, Spinny, Sattuz, Astrome and Dhruva Space, announced the first close of its second venture capital fund at INR 355 Cr ($42.5 Mn).

The IAN Alpha Fund has a target corpus of INR 1,000 Cr ($119 Mn). 

In the same month, early stage VC firm Sprout Venture Partners announced the first close of its second fund at $10 Mn. 

In November, Pantomath Financial Services Group announced the final close of its pre-IPO fund, India Inflection Opportunity Fund (IIOF), at $60 Mn. 

According to Inc42’s analysis, funds worth $5 Bn+ were launched for investments in Indian startups last year. Of this, 46% of the funds were focussed on early-stage startups.

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