Sameer Brij Verma, who left venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners last year, has raised $150 million for his new solo partner fund, Northpoint Capital, the Economic Times reported on Friday.
The solo GP (general partner) firm will focus on early-stage investments backing 15-20 startups with initial cheque sizes in the $1-8 million range, the report said. “The primary focus will be on early-stage startups, but the firm will remain open to investing selectively in follow-on rounds.”
DealStreetAsia has reached out to Verma for a comment.
Before Nexus, Verma was the founding member at Reliance Capital’s early-stage VC fund Reliance Ventures, where he led investments in Paytm (stake acquired by Alipay), Healthspring (stake acquired by Columbia Pacific), Tessolve Semiconductor (acquired by Hero Electronix), Dhama Innovations (exited), and Greendust, among others.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Verma founded Breakthrough Capital, an equity-focused investment entity managing his capital. It wrote cheques for Bira91, Licious, Slice, Pristyn Care, Fi, and Red.Health, among many others.
He is also the founder and managing partner of BroadBridge Capital Management, his vehicle focused on pre-IPO opportunities. It has invested in NSE & FiveStar Biz Finance.
The launch of Northpoint Capital adds to a growing list of new private equity and venture capital funds being set up in India by seasoned investors. In April, Padmanabh Sinha, a former top executive at India’s government-backed domestic infrastructure fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Ltd (NIIF), launched a new private equity (PE) firm called LaunchBay Capital.
Previously, Trident Growth Partners, founded by former executives from Premji Invest and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), announced the first close of its debut fund at over Rs 1,000 crore ($120 million), with plans to back Series B and later-stage deals in high-growth sectors.
Other recent moves include former IFC executive Ruchira Shukla launching her venture capital fund Synapses last year, while former IFC executive Sayan Ghosh left the institution in 2023 to start Ortella Global Capital, a venture fund focused on technology-led sectors.
