Former SoftBank Executive’s Son Raises $150 Mn For His India-Focused Fund

Rohan Misra, son of former SoftBank Vision Fund chief Rajeev Misra, has reportedly launched a fund to invest in Indian technology startups.

An ET report, citing sources close to the matter, said that Rohan Misra has raised $150 Mn for the fund Gravity Holdings.

The report further added that he has secured the capital largely from a host of undisclosed domestic family offices, founders and senior executives.

With this fund, which is focused on growth-stage deals, Rohan aims to bring in strategic expertise and network effect for its portfolio startups. 

Inc42 has reached out to the company for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

The fund has made its maiden investment in HR tech startup Darwinbox’s $140 Mn round. 

In 2022, Rajeev Misra stepped down from his role at SoftBank to launch his own venture fund. He is known for building a $100 Mn fund at the Japanese tech VC firm and bringing LPs in the form of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Apple Inc., the government of Abu Dhabi and others. 

Meanwhile, Rohan also served as a member of the investment team at VC firm TCV for four years before launching his own fund.

This comes at the heart of several VC executives launching their own funds to back Indian startups. For instance, last year, former Premji Invest partner Atul Gupta launched a VC firm Trident Growth Partners (India) to invest in startups operating across consumer, financial services, enterprise software and technology, industrial and manufacturing and healthcare sectors.

Similarly, Venture Highway’s Aviral Bhatnagar launched a new venture capital fund called AJVC in August 2024. Earlier this week, his venture closed its first INR 100 Cr fund targeting pre-seed investments in India.

In November last year, Peak XV Partners’ ex-managing director Piyush Gupta launched secondaries-focussed venture capital firm Kenro Capital.

Meanwhile, India’s startup ecosystem has also swayed in the IPO wave. The ecosystem is witnessing many large funding rounds and secondary deals as the investors are cashing in on the companies during their pre-IPO  funding.

For instance, Swiggy’s early backers, including Accel India and Elevation Capital made over 34X returns on their investments when the company hit the bourses. Similarly, BlackBuck’s IPO saw early backers Flipkart and Accel raking in 5X returns.

In 2024, the Indian startup ecosystem saw the launch of  81 new funds, including VC funds, PE funds, micro funds, angel funds, and government funds, worth over $8.7 Bn. Out of this, a total of 19  funds were launched for growth to late and late stage startups, amounting to over $4.8 Bn.