PE Investor, Fulcrum Venture Secures Funds From SIDBI To Invest In Startups Under $2.5 Mn

Private equity investor, Fulcrum Venture, which focuses on the SME business opportunities has secured undisclosed amount of funds from Small Industries Development Bank (SIDBI).

Fulcrum Venture was foreseeing approximately $16 Mn (INR 100 Cr) fund raise for its second India specific fund. It raised INR 60 Cr ($9.7 Mn) as the first part of this fund in 2013.

With the new funds, the venture capital firm plans to invest in other industry verticals along with healthcare and wellness. Being a small and medium enterprise-focused fund, Fulcrum Venture India seeks to invest funds between $780K to $2.5 Mn (INR 5 Cr – INR 15 Cr).

Founded in 2000, Fulcrum is a private equity investor with a focus on SME business opportunities. The venture capital fund has invested in eight startups till date including Shield Healthcare, Richfeel Health and Beauty, Congruent Solutions, Nutri Synapzz Therapeutix, SwaaS Systems, CMYK Health boutique, Curatio and Casa Grande. Recently, Mumbai-based startup NoBroker secured $3 Mn funds from Fulcrum Ventures accompanied with SAIF Partners and Chennai-based Southern Health Foods Pvt Ltd., the maker of Manna foods, secured INR30 Cr ($5 Mn) investment.

Krishna Ramanathan, founder partner of Fulcrum Venture said, “We’ve made four investments till date and signed term sheets for two more. Once we finish with these, we will scout for the seventh from the fund. Fulcrum is also, considering a raise for its third fund within 12-15 months with a corpus between INR 250 Cr- INR 300 Cr.”

Investors believe that India is at a very nascent stage at Startup ecosystem growth as compared to the US market. The investors are filling up their cisterns to provide the most to domestic startups and contribute to their growth story.

Commenting on the increasing investors’ interest and fund raiser, Nitin Agrawal, managing director of a leading boutique investment bank, Equirus Capital said, “There’s a new breed of investors that are coming in and ready to back venture capital funds investing in the country. It’s a very good time to raise fresh capital now.”

According to the data collated by ET, the venture capital fundraising is expected to reach a record-high of $3 Bn in India this year.

Few weeks back, another VC firm Kalaari Capital had announced its plans to raise $200 Mn for its third venture capital fund i.e Kalaari Capital Partners III.

Other venture funds that have raised capital till now are  Sequoia Capital, which raised $210 Mn, Mayfield with $108Mn, Lighthouse with $125 Mn for its India 2020 Fund II, SAIF Partners with $350 Mn, Accel Partners with $305 Mn and Lightspeed Venture Partners with $115 Mn. The $3 Bn club still seeks funds to be raised by Helion Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and IDG Ventures.

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