VC Firm Z3Partners Announces Final Close Of Its INR 550 Cr Fund

Venture capital firm Z3Partners has raised INR 550 Cr marking the final close of its fund. The VC firm has raised funds from institutional investors including HDFC Life and SIDBI.

The fund will primarily invest in eight to ten early-growth, digital and tech startups with a ticket size of INR 50–80 Cr ($6-10 Mn). Z3Partners is an early-growth stage investor-operator that invests across early-growth companies in Series A/ B stage.

The VC company has already made five investments in cybersecurity startup Cyfirma, social ecommerce firm DealShare, agritech platform Gramophone, SaaS-based logistics management platform Shipsy, and AI-led celebrity engagement platform True-Fan.

DealShare, had also turned Unicorn in 2022 after its $165 Mn Series E financing round.

Z3Partners was founded in 2019 by Gautam Patel, who invested in companies such as BigBasket, MedGenome, OfBusiness and Pepperfry.

Z3Partners fund’s core investment themes target SaaS, fintech, ecommerce, B2B commerce, agritech, big data, consumer tech and all things tech-enabled.

“At Z3Partners, our vision is to identify the most disruptive and cutting edge startups and provide them with necessary support to grow into market leaders. The same philosophy is reflected across our LP based too, with market leaders like HDFC Life and SIDBI as our Fund investors; resulting in a final close well ahead of schedule,” Gautam Patel, founder and managing partner of Z3Partners said.

Back in 2021, Z3Partners raised INR 100 Cr marking the first close of its maiden fund with a target corpus of INR 730 Cr ($100 Mn) targeting high-growth startups across consumer and enterprise sectors.

Meanwhile, Z3Partners has onbaorded Rishi Maheshwari as cofounder and managing partner. Maheshwari has more than 18 years of investment management and investment banking experience across the US, India and emerging Markets.

On Monday, Singapore-based global investment firm Lighthouse Canton too marked the first close of its INR 550 Cr India-focussed venture debt fund. Few days ago, Dallas Venture Capital (DVC) also announced the first close of its INR 350 Cr India-focussed fund for enterprisetech startups.

If we look at the number of funds being launched recently, there were 126 funds being introduced in 2022. These included venture capital, micro, corporate VC, and debt funds. These funds cumulatively raised more than $18 Bn to invest in Indian startups. In comparison, 2021 saw the launch of only 61 funds, raising more than $6 Bn for startup investments.

Out of the 126 funds launched in 2022, 62% was focussed on early-stage startups while the remaining 38% targeted growth and late-stage startups.