WaterBridge Ventures raises $150 Mn for its Fund II

Early stage VC firm WaterBridge Ventures has raised $150 million for its Fund II, 50% more than the planned size, owing to heightened investor interest because of unparalleled growth of the Indian startup ecosystem.

The final close has come within a year for the firm which announced its first close in 2020. The fund, that has backed companies such as Atlan, Bijnis, CityMall, Chalo, DoubtNut, Magicpin, PocketPills and Unacademy among others, now has a total AUM of more than $250 million.

Launched in 2017 by Manish Kheterpal and Ashish Jain, WaterBridge plans to make 25 investments in seed to Series A stages with cheque sizes ranging from $500,000 to $3 million, and back its portfolio winners with further capital in subsequent rounds from its Fund II assets. 

The venture capital market of India has come of age especially over the last 10 months. Just in 2021, over $30 billion of funding is going to fuel startups in India and 39 new unicorns have been created so far.