Early-stage VC 8i Ventures to offload partial stake in M2P Fintech

8i Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, has made a partial exit of its seed investment in M2P Fintech at a 36X multiple clocking an IRR of 415% over 2 years. 

M2P is among the portfolio winners of 8i Ventures. It offers Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) to over 500 fintechs, along with non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), banks and other financial service companies. 

Following this partial exit of its seed shares in M2P, 8i Ventures, through its Fund I and affiliates, will continue to hold more than 75% of its original stake in the company. Fund I was launched in May 2019 and had its final close on July 31, 2021. The size of the fund is $15.5 million, which comprises $13 million as assets under management (AUM) and another $2.5 million co-invest AUM.

8i Ventures’ Fund I is currently up 2.7-folds with an IRR of 122% and a Multiple On Invested Capital (MOIC) of 4X. Its portfolio already has three breakout winners in M2P Fintech, Slice and Easebuzz.

The portfolio consists of investments in 13 ventures with 80% of investible capital invested/reserved for the current portfolio. The fund invests in start-ups, which are in pre-seed to Series B stage, with cheque sizes ranging at $300,000 to $1.3 million. 

8i Fund I has so far invested in fintech, consumer and web 3.0. The fund’s portfolio has received follow-on investments from VCs like Tiger Global, Insight Partners, Flourish, Omidyar, and Beenext.

The valuation of M2P Fintech has grown by 60X to $600 million since 8i Ventures led its seed round in January 2020. M2P’s clients include category leaders like Slice, Uni, Lazypay and Kodo. It has a presence in over 20 markets across Asia and North Africa, including India, Nepal, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand.