Ashok Damani backed Artha India Venture to launch Rs 200 Cr fund

Artha India venture is launching its own fund to invest in early stage startups in fledgling Indian startup ecosystem. The family office of former BSE director Ashok Damani is in last leg of making a formal application to market regulator Sebi to register Artha Venture Fund.

According to The Economic Times report, Artha Venture Fund, which will be registered as a Category I Alternate Investment Fund post the regulator approval, will carry a size of Rs 200 crore with a greenshoe option of Rs 100 crore.

Artha India Fund will typically invests in the seed and early stages of startups, with follow on commitments up to Series A. Importantly, the fund would be sector agnostic. It invests across verticals such as hospitality, travel, fintech, data analytics, big data, ecommerce, AI, SaaS, PaaS among others.

"We have received commitments from a bunch of Indian high networth individuals to make the first Rs 40 crore," Anirudh Damani, close at director at Artha India Ventures,” said Damani. The fund slated to make investments after earning approval from market

The fund will have cycle of seven years with two years extension. It will typically invest in range of Rs 1 crore to Rs 7 crore with total commitment for a startup over three rounds will be between Rs 10 crore and Rs 12 crore. AIF will lead and participate in about 10-12 deals each year.

"Our commitment to investors is to show them an internal rate of return (IRR) of 30-40%," added Damani.

The fund will be promoted by Artha India Ventures and Singularity Holdings, whose investment arm has invested in lingerie brand Clovia and Stalkbuylove. So far, most of the investors commitments have come from HNIs. Now, the fund plans  to raise the remaining amount from larger limited partners and family offices.