Sri Lanka and Singapore based BOV Capital, has announced a $15Mn (INR 100 Cr) fund focused on Sri Lankan startups. This venture capital fund focused on early stage startups in the country.
BOV Capital is a partnership between well known investors and entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka, Prajeeth Balasubramniam, Eric Wikramanayake and Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India and Southeast Asia).
It intends to invest in 7-10 startups, each with an investment in the $750K (INR 5 Cr) to $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr) range. The fund will focus on investing and working closely with Sri Lankan tech startups that can scale to large regional and global businesses. Apart from this, the fund is looking for startups that have strong teams, have proven product market fit and have demonstrated some ability to expand outside Sri Lanka.
The fund, which targets raising $15Mn (INR 100 Cr), has already attained its close with $4.5 Mn (INR 30 Cr). The funds were raised from HNIs in India and Singapore, and the founding partners.
Investor Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, said, “Over the past 5 years, we have seen the emergence of an exciting startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s strong educational system has led to the country producing world-class engineers. These skills in computer science and engineering, combined with the global exposure that many of our entrepreneurs have, is leading to the creation of very interesting software product companies and internet companies that have tremendous regional and global potential. BOV Capital intends to invest in the highest potential technology startups from Sri Lanka and help them expand rapidly.”
Ambit, an investment bank in India, will be the fund-raise partner for BOV Capital. Headquartered in Mumbai, Ambit offers customised solutions in the areas of Corporate Finance, Private Equity, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Institutional Equities and Structured lending services.
