Mumbai-based Artha Group has launched a new micro venture capital fund — Artha Select Fund (ASF) — to invest in the follow-on rounds of category-winning startups within its portfolio. The fund is targeting to raise about $55 million (Rs 450 crore).
The fund has secured commitments from a slew of investors, including Pune-based Kirloskar Family Office, the family office of former Reliance Capital CIS Madhusudan Kela, Abhinav Sinha (MD – British International Investment), Narendra Karnavat of CA firm Karnavat and Co, Jashvant Raval of JCR & Co, Mumbai-based listed firm SAT Industries, Varun Bansal of Jayashree Polymers and Rajiv Lakhotia of Shree Karni Fabcom, among others.
About 60% of the fund’s corpus will be deployed in startups focused on D2C, D2C enablers and B2B SaaS, Anirudh A Damani, managing partner, Artha Select Fund, told DealStreetAsia in an interview.
ASF will commit up to Rs 20 crore in the Series B round and an additional Rs 20 crore in the Series C round in startups where Artha is already an investor. The firm will back 12-14 startups through this vehicle.
Artha announced the final close of its maiden fund Artha Venture Fund (AVF) in June 2021 at over Rs 225 crore, exceeding its target corpus of Rs 200 crore. The fund has made 27 investments so far, with a combined valuation of over Rs 3,600 crore. Its portfolio includes LenDenClub, Agnikul, OYO, Purplle, LeveragEdu, Tala, Rapido, Coutloot, Karza Technologies and Mobilewalla, among others.
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