Endiya Partners meets corpus target for second fund

Endiya Partners has marked the final close of its new fund, meeting its corpus target of Rs 500 crore ($70 million), a top executive at the early-stage venture capital firm told VCCircle.

Sateesh Andra, partner at Endiya Partners, said that the fund saw participation from both new and returning Limited Partners (LPs).

Andra added that one of the new LPs is the government's fund of funds called AcE Fund under Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

The investment from BIRAC's fund of funds aligns well with Endiya's focus on healthcare as one of its segments, explained Ramesh Byrapaneni, managing director, Endiya.

Endiya's new fund will write initial cheques between $1 million and $1.5 million and can invest a total of $4-5 million in follow-on investments. The fund aims to invest in around 18 startups.

The new fund will focus on business-to-business (B2B) startups in the technology and healthcare sectors and select bets in the consumer segment.

Endiya, founded in 2015 by Andra and Byrapaneni, had marked the first close of its second fund at $40 million in May 2019. Last year, the new fund received $20 million in total commitments from International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The second fund also received capital from India-Japan fund of funds Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF Fund last year.

Investments from the second fund include deep-tech startups Myelin Foundry, Steradian Semiconductors and electric mobility firm Cell Propulsion.

Endiya had hit the final close of its debut fund at Rs 175 crore (around $26 million) in early 2017.

The first fund made 12 investments including early bets on fintech startup Kissht, medical-technology startup SigTuple and enterprise HR management platform Darwinbox.

Last year, marquee investors including Sequoia, Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) and Lightspeed India Partners marked the final close of new funds.

Smaller homegrown venture capital firms such as Blume Ventures and Equanimity Investments also marked the final close of their funds while Unicorn India Ventures and Inflexor Ventures marked the first close of their funds.