IvyCap to close Rs 600 cr fund, looks to invest in fresh companies

Receiving soft commitment on investment from home-grown investors, IvyCap Venture is all set close its second fund of Rs 600 crore.

IvyCap is single venture capital firm in India to have raised almost all of its investment from homegrown institutional investors.

“We have already received soft commitments (but) are still waiting for some paperwork to close.That might take a few more months. Our target (for an official close) is not later than September," managing partner of the fund Vikram Gupta was quoted by ET.

After raising the fund, the company plans to invest around 15-25% of the fund for follow-on investments. “The major portion will go into series-A and series-B rounds, which would be investments in fresh companies," Gupta added.

Earlier, in 2012 the firm launched its first fund of Rs 240 crore. Launched in Oct 2015, the second fund figured the IIT Alumni Trust as its sponsor investor, who chipped in with Rs 120 crore, along with a host of large banks, private and public insurance companies. Institutional investors from the first fund have also extended their commitment to the new fund. Later in April 2016, it closed new fund at Rs 300 crore.

Meanwhile, the company has kept itself away from HNIs and family offices. Since beginning it claims to have boarded no HNIs or family offices. However, recently it reportedly boarded a family office, for which no clarification or statement was made by the managing partners of the firm.

Among the companies it has already invested include TaskBob, FTCash and GrabOnRent. With the new fund, IvyCap would be eyeing to invest and write big cheque in rising healthcare, fintech, consumer tech, B2B and agri-tech sectors. Firm is looking to invest around Rs 150-180 crore by next March.

The ecosystem of new funds has created optimism about a pick-up in the investment cycle at the early stages. The current year has already witnessed angel and seed investments fall both in volume and value terms with deal volumes reduced to half, according to report from VCCEdge. However, many experts think that the tide will change in future years.