World Bank’s IFC Looks To Invest $25 Mn In Stellaris’ $160 Mn Fund

Bengaluru-based venture capital firm Stellaris Ventures Partners is planning to raise $25 Mn from the World Bank Group’s investment arm International Financial Corporation (IFC). It is also targeting a $160 Mn fund to invest in early-stage startups. 

According to a Business Standard report, the proposed investment by IFC will be in the form of equity investment of up to $25 Mn in SEBI-registered Stellaris Venture Partners India Trust II (Fund). Primarily, Stellaris Ventures Partners India Trust II focuses on seed and Series A investments in Indian tech-enabled startups.

With the capital raised, the fund will look to support 20-25 companies across healthcare, education, financial services, logistics, consumer internet and enterprise technology sectors.

Stellaris Venture Partners was launched in early 2016 by former Helion Venture Partners executives Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri. The early-stage venture fund has an investment focus in SaaS startups, enterprise tech apps targeting Indian small and medium business (SMBs) as well as B2C products in healthtech, edtech, fintech and retail tech.

In 2020, Stellaris participated in the INR 130 Cr funding round of D2C beauty brand Mamaearth which was led by Sequoia Capital as well as the INR 100 Cr funding round of logistics tech startup Loadshare Networks. 

In 2018, it led the investment in social ecommerce platform Shop101, while also investing in Mamaearth to the tune of INR 27.5 Cr. Besides this, the VC firm has also participated in the funding rounds of startups such as mobile B2B marketplace Wydr (January 2017), Whatfix ($3.69 Mn, April 2017), Noticeboard ($1.2 Mn, July 2017), Mfine ($1.5 Mn, September 2017) amongst others.

While the Stellaris investment is yet to be confirmed, IFC has looked to expand its fund and startup portfolio in India this year. In May, International Finance Corporation was said to be in talks invested $10 Mn each in Hyderabad-based early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners’ Fund II as well as extended warranty and device protection services provider Onsitego.

Earlier, IFC had invested in $20 Mn in early-stage venture fund Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures, in 2019 and 2017. Besides this, it has also invested another $20 Mn in Jungle Ventures in 2015. In 2017, IFO has also invested in Pi Ventures.

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