Artha Venture partially exits Uber-backed Everest Fleet

Early-stage micro venture capital Artha Venture Fund (AVF) has announced a partial exit from fleet management company Everest Fleet.

Mobility startup Everest Fleet recently closed a $20 million funding round led by the global ride hailing major Uber. Multiple LPs (limited partners) who initially invested in the Everest Fleet alongside AVF opted for partial exits in this round.

According to Artha Venture, it has received a 19x return on its investment and the partial exit from the startup has materialized into an initial rate of return of 105%. The firm added that it initiated its investment in Everest Fleet in 2019 with a cumulative investment of Rs 10 crore. So far, Artha has invested in three rounds in the Siddharth Ladsariya-led company.

Seven-year-old Everest Fleet operates in the shared mobility space in India and is an existing partner to ridesharing companies like Uber and Ola. As per the company, it is also Uber’s largest professionally managed fleet supplier in the country.

According to data intelligence platform TheKredible, Everest Fleet has so far raised more than $30 million from investors including Rockstud Capital and Paragon Partners. In FY22, the company’s revenue jumped 3.1X to Rs 113 crore and also turned profitable and churned Rs 11.7 crore in profits in the fiscal year. The firm is yet to file its annual report for FY23.

This marks the 31st exit for Artha Group which has a portfolio of more than 100 startups. The group recently announced the launch of Artha Continuum Fund (ACF), a syndicate fund for family offices and Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNIs).

Around half a dozen funds have announced their partial or full exit in the past couple of months.

Last month, early-stage venture capital First Cheque took a partial exit from its portfolio company GIVA. In the same month, Venture Catalysts made a partial exit from Cusmat and a full exit from Koovers whereas Peak XV Partners exited partially from K12 Techno Services. In August, early stage investor Titan Capital also made a partial exit in debt recovery and legal automation platform Credgenics with more than 100x return.