Growth and later stage tech investment firm Epiq Capital is closing its maiden fund of $200-$250 million. The corpus will focus on investment in late-stage technology companies. Led by erstwhile Matrix Partners India managing director Rishi Navani, Epiq Capital is closing up to $100 million initially, primarily from overseas investors.
According to an Economic Times report, the firm will invest $10-20 million in later stage (matured) companies.
It aims to provide liquidity to early-stage backers and employees through investing in the secondary transaction. Epiq Capital had earlier invested in Mobile Point of Sale (PoS) provider mSwipe, Dailyhunt and women focused apparel brand W.
Navani was one of the co-founders of US venture capital firm Matrix Partners’ Indian arm in 2006. Prior to this, he was with Westbridge Capital and Indocean Ventures.
A quick look at investment firms launched in 2017
Epiq is one of the new investments firms to make debut in Indian startup ecosystem. Over the past 12 months, several new venture capital firms have made debut in India. Early this year, ex Helion Venture Partners key executives Rahul Chaudhry, Alok Goyal and Ritesh Banglani floated Stellaris Venture to invest in early-stage startups.
Rahul Chandra, managing director at Helion Venture Partners also launched a new investment firm Unitary Helion with a corpus of $100 million. It focuses to invest in financial technology firms, digital marketplaces and value-chain innovation in core sectors such as financial services, agri-business, logistics, and healthcare.
Last year, ex SAIF Partner’s principal Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain had started early-stage investment firm Pravega VC with $30 million corpus to invest in early-stage startups. In July this year, Nandan Nilekani and Helion Venture’s Sanjeev Aggarwal launched investment fund called Fundamentum with a corpus of $100 million to back startups looking for growth capital.
Another Helion Ventures co-founder Kanwaljit Singh launched Fireside Ventures in August to invest in consumer brands across sectors, including food and beverages, personal care and home products.