Chiratae announces final close of fourth fund at $337 mn

Venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures on Friday said it has marked the final close of its fourth fund at $337 million (Rs 2,493 crore) that was oversubscribed by 25%. 

This is higher than the $200 million Chiratae Ventures had raised for its third fund in March 2017. Chiratae has backed startups such as Policybazar and Lenskart.

Chiratae Ventures, formerly IDG Ventures India, said in a statement that over half of the new fund was raised from domestic investors, sticking to its aim of expanding its base of rupee capital when most of the venture capital industry in India still relies on foreign capital for fundraising.

Domestic investors in the fourth fund include family offices and industrial families, it said. Global investors include those from the US, the UK, Europe, Japan, and Singapore, Chiratae Ventures added without specifying their identities.

Chiratae Ventures continues to focus on startups with technology at the core, it noted.

The venture capital firm, which was founded in 2006, had raised $150 million for its first fund in 2007. It floated its second fund with a $175 million corpus target in 2013 which ended up with Rs 600 crore (around $100 million) in November 2014.

Chiratae Ventures’ first investment was in business intelligence and analytics company Manthan Software Services Pvt Ltd. It was also a first mover in the medical-tech space with Perfint Healthcare and was one of the first investors in ecommerce with its investment in fashion e-tailer Myntra, which was later acquired by ecommerce giant Flipkart.

Chiratae Ventures has made more than 100 investments since inception. Its portfolio includes Agrostar, Bizongo, Bounce, Cropin, Curefit, Emotix, GoMechanic, HealthifyMe, PlayShifu, Pyxis, Uniphore, and Vayana.

The statement also said that Chiratae has completed 38 exits with eight consecutive years of capital distributions to investors.

Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman of Chiratae Ventures, said one of the firm’s exits saw a recent 43x return from PlaySimple.

This year has seen several venture capital firms announce fundraising milestones and float new funds.

Last month, early-stage venture capital firm Inflexor Ventures marked the final close of its new fund at over Rs 600 crore ($80.8 million), overshooting its target corpus of Rs 500 crore.

In June, India Quotient raised $64 million (Rs 474.2 crore) for its fourth fund; and micro venture capital firm Artha Venture Fund raised investor commitments worth more than Rs 220 crore ($30 million) for its debut fund, overshooting its target corpus.

In the same month, early-stage venture capital fund WEH Ventures launched its second fund with a target to raise Rs 100 crore.

In May, Blume Ventures, which has invested in startups such as Unacademy, Grey Orange, Dunzo and Purplle, was reported to be launching its fourth fund. In January, South Korean financial services firm Mirae Asset, which has invested in Indian startups such as Ola, Zomato and Bigbasket, launched an India-focused early-stage fund. 

Earlier this year, Endiya Partners and Fireside Ventures marked the final close of their new funds.