Vijay Shekhar Sharma Joins Roots Ventures As Anchor Limited Partner

Founder of the Indian fintech major Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has joined the Roots Ventures fund as an anchor limited partner. The firm said that anchor investors and partners have contributed 20% to the fund’s corpus.

Commenting on this development, Paytm’s Sharma said, “Japan (Vyas) is one of the few investors I know who have had a successful track record for more than a decade picking winners across his funds and business cycles. He is also one of the early shareholders in Paytm when he invested in us from his first fund at IDFC.” 

Industry leaders such as Pravin Gandhi of Seedfund, Sandeep Kohli former CEO of Yum International India division, along with Kushal and Chaitanya Desai of Apar Industries have also invested in the fund’s corpus. 

Roots Ventures is in the process of raising its first fund of INR 200 Cr ($28.9 Mn) with a green shoe option of INR 100 Cr ($14.4 Mn) to invest in opportunities arising out of increasing per capita income, changing spending pattern of the consumers and technology disruption around these segments.

It is a multi-stage, sector agnostic alternative investment platform set up by a Japan Vyas and Ravinder Vashist. Roots Ventures is registered as an alternative investment platform with the Indian regulatory body SEBI. 

Vyas had also headed the alternatives platform of IDFC Investment Advisors and was also a cofounder of another investment firm Sixth Sense Ventures. 

The VC fund is aimed at investing in companies working on increasing per capita income, changing consumer spends, and applying technology to these segments. 

“Our portfolio will comprise early stage, growth and small mid-listed investments. Our fundraise is on track and we are in advanced discussions with two fund of funds and looking to close our fundraise over the next 2-3 months,” said Vyas. 

Since inception, Roots has closed six investments including consumer products, consumer tech and fintech startups. Further, it claims to be in the process of closing two more investments in the companies from mobility and consumer space. 

Earlier this month, an early-stage VC firm Artha Venture Fund has announced the second close of its first fund which now brings the total amount raised to over INR 100 Cr ($14.4 Mn) against the expected $28.8 Mn (INR 200 Cr) target for the fund overall.