Unitus Ventures Marks First Close Of INR 300 Cr Opportunity Fund At INR 75 Cr

Venture capital (VC) firm Unitus Ventures has raised more than INR 75 Cr, marking the first close of its INR 300 Cr ($40 Mn) Opportunity Fund.

The fund will be deployed to back high-performing early-stage startups from its portfolio of two funds – Unitus Ventures Fund I and Unitus Ventures Fund II. Unitus has also set aside 20% of the fund for deals outside of Unitus’ existing portfolio to focus on Series A+ companies working in the domain of Generative AI and climate technologies. 

The round saw participation from Japan-based internet business conglomerate MyNavi Corporation, Cyient’s BVR Mohan Reddy, Nandkumar Seksaria of Govindram Seksaria Group, among others.

Unitus plans to announce the final close of the fund by the end of 2023. 

The move is part of Unitus’ strategy of doubling down on the startups across HRtech, fintech, edtech and artificial intelligence (AI). 

As part of the fund, the VC firm has already deployed capital in five startups – HRtech platform BetterPlace, edtech startup Cuemath, lendingtech platform Eduvanz, gig worker platform Awign and upskilling company Masai.

“Despite the tough macroeconomic environment, most of Unitus’ portfolio companies have grown sustainably because of their strong unit economics and unwavering focus on profitability… We want to further bolster the performance of select leaders such as BetterPlace, Cuemath, Awign, Masai, Eduvanz with the capital raised from the first close of the Opportunity Fund,” the managing partner at Unitus Ventures, Surya Mantha, said.

Chiming in, India head of MyNavi Hidekazu Ito said,”… As we entered the India market, Unitus was the natural partner, given their expertise, networks and unparalleled portfolio of startups. We also align with their commitment to identifying and supporting startups with sound business models that can create value over the long term.”

Founded in 2012 by Dave Richards, Will Poole, and Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Unitus Ventures is a VC firm that largely invests in early-stage startups in domains such as jobtech, fintech, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and climatetech, 

The VC firm closed its Unitus Fund I in 2013 at $21 Mn and made 23 investments in early-stage startups. Subsequently, it raised funds as part of its INR 300 Cr second fund in 2018. It also picked up INR 75 Cr from Small Industrial Development Bank of India’s (SIDBI) Fund of Funds for startups in 2020 as part of Fund II. 

The third fund comes nearly three years after the last fundraiser. So far, the VC firm has  29 startups in its portfolio. 

The announcement comes amid a slew of such announcements since the beginning of this year. In January, US-based investment firm B Capital closed its third venture growth fund, Growth Fund III, at $2.1 Bn. Afterwards, portfolio management firm Piper Serica Advisors raised INR 75 Cr for an angel fund to invest in early-stage tech startups. 

In the third week of January, alternate investment firm 360 ONE announced the launch of two new funds – an INR 1,000 Cr angel fund and an INR 300 Cr VC fund.

This also comes at a time when VC firms have been accumulating dry powder amid a volatile market. While investors were seen tightening their purse strings, owing to a market slowdown, VC and PE firms launched funds with a total corpus of more than $18 Bn last year.