IvyCap Ventures Hits Final Close Of Third Fund At INR 2,100 Cr

Mumbai-based venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures, which has backed startups such as Biryani By Kilo, Lendbox and Bluestone among others, has marked the final close of its third fund at INR 2,100 Cr (around $251 Mn).

With this closure, the VC firm’s total assets under management have now surged to INR 5,000 Cr (around $600 Mn).

The fund ‘Ivycap Ventures Trust Fund 3’ rolled out in 2022, has received commitments from institutions, including IIT Alumni Trust and family offices.

The fund will allocate investments to about 25 early-stage startups, with an average ticket size of INR 30-50 Cr. 

So far, the firm has already deployed 40% of the corpus across startups such as Celcius, Agraga, Eggoz, ZestIot, Snitch, GradRight, Flexifyme, Beatoven.ai and Dhruva Space.

Founded in 2011 by Vikram Gupta, IvyCap Ventures manages a portfolio of about 50 companies across sectors, including healthtech, edtech, consumertech, deeptech, fintech, agritech and spacetech. 

Nearly 20% of the capital will be deployed for investing in IvyCap Ventures’ existing portfolio companies, with the firm co-investing during the fundraise.

Further, it has set aside INR 100 Cr to back seed-stage  startups.

“We owe this achievement to the trust our investors have bestowed on us across our funds…we are also grateful to our Advisory Board, for their unwavering support since the inception of IvyCap Ventures. We have always believed in the potential of domestic capital and feel fortunate for the invaluable backing of India’s leading institutional investors across all funds,” Gupta said.

IvyCap marked the first close of its third fund at INR 1,608 Cr in February 2022. Its maiden fund, launched in 2014, had a size of INR 240 Cr, while its second fund swelled more than two-fold to INR 530 Cr.

While the first fund of IvyCap delivered a nearly 3X distribution of cash to paid-in capital (DPI), the second fund clocked a 0.4X DPI, mainly led by exits through mergers and acquisitions of companies such as Clovia (acquired by Reliance), Sokrati (acquired by Dentsu International) and Aujas (acquired by NSEIT).

The development comes at a time when a number of VC firms are announcing funds for Indian startups amid an increase in disposable income and significant digital adoption in the country. The allure of India’s booming tech ecosystem also shows promise to create wealth for global investors. 

While 2023 saw 63 funds worth $5 Bn being launched in the country to support Indian startups, as many as 126 funds, with a size of $18 Bn, were raised in 2022.

Last week, venture capital fund Norwest Venture Partners marked the close of its 17th fund at $3 Bn. It plans to deploy the capital for startups across sectors such as enterprise tech, consumer and healthcare in three focus markets: India, the US and Israel.