Venture capital firm Ivy-Cap Ventures has raised over INR 244.5 Cr. for its maiden fund to invest in early-to-growth stage startups. The fund plans to invest in the startups founded by graduates from top colleges like IITs and IIMs.
Ivy-Cap has raised this fund completely from domestic investors, of which 20% anchor commitment coming from the alumni of IITs and IIMs globally, and the rest from institutional investors.
“If you just look at the data of the total IITians about 300,000, 20% of them have been entrepreneurs once in their lifetime, and 500 IPOs have already happened,” said Vikram Gupta, founder and managing partner of IvyCap.“One-third of the companies which have gone through venture-backed exits have been founded from IITs and IIMs.
It has already deployed 50% of the fund and expects to finish investments in the next 8 months by investing in 5 more startups. As of now it has invested in about 6 startups including RML Pvt Ltd, women-focused online apparel retailer E-Shakti, Leixir, a company which manages a dental labs chain in North America
The fund’s advisory board includes HCL Technologies co-founder Arjun Malhotra, Mastek co-founder Ashank Desai and Makemytrip founder Deep Kalra besides deans and professors of IITs with GK Pillai, former union home & commerce secretary, as chairman of the fund.
Going further, IvyCap plans to raise over INR 900 Cr. fir its second fund from overseas investors.
