PharmEasy Backer KB Investment Commits $100 Mn To Elev8 Venture Partners

India-focused early-stage VC firm Elev8 Venture Partners has received a commitment of $100 Mn from South Korea’s KB Group. PharmEasy backer KB Investment (a subsidiary of KB Group) has partnered with Elev8 Venture Partners and has become an anchor investor and co-GP (co-general partner). 

KB Group’s global experience, operational capabilities, and network of strategic relationships across the world will assist Elev8’s portfolio companies to expand their global presence and strengthen their products in different markets, the VC firm said in a statement.

KB Investment has earlier invested in Indian startups such as Fareye, Tracxn, Rupeek, Vedantu, and Spinny among others. 

As part of the partnership, KB Group will not only assist Elev8 Venture Partners in identifying investment opportunities but also help in portfolio management. As per Elev8 Venture Partners, more than 50% of its portfolio companies intend to expand their presence in the Southeast Asia region. 

Commenting on the investment, Eric Yoo, managing director of KB Investment, said that Navin Honagudi and the Venture Catalysts group provide unprecedented access and network to early-stage startups, which will assist the VC fund in future deal flow and investments.

Elev8 Venture Partners was founded by Navin Honagudi, Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jain, Gaurav Jain, and CA Anuj Golecha. The founders have previously backed several startups, including Paytm, Shiprocket, Vedantu, Reshamandi, BharatPe, Kenko, BluSmart, Niyo, Airmeet, Toch, and Zypp. 

The latest development comes two months after Elev8 Venture Partners rolled out a $200 Mn sector-agnostic fund. The fund, which received AIF Cat II license from SEBI, will be investing between $5 Mn to $15 Mn in growth and late-stage startups. It intends to participate mostly in Series B and beyond funding rounds of Indian startups. 

The fund is led by Navin Honagudi, who was earlier the co-founder and partner of Kae capital and an early team member of Reliance Ventures. Venture Catalysts is the institutional co-founder of the fund.

Elev8 Venture Partners has received the commitment at a time when there is a recession-like period across the world with startups unable to secure funds and VCs seeing their billions of dollars of investments wiped out.

The funding raised by Indian startups declined 77% to $1.3 Bn in the month of October from $5.6 Bn in the year-ago month.