Mumbai-based venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures said Friday it has raised a total of USD 337 million, marking the closure of its fourth fund, an oversubscription from its initial target of USD 225 million. High net-worth individuals and family offices from India, the US, UK, Europe, Japan, and Singapore parked their money in the fund.
In the 15 years of its existence, Chiratae has participated in 100 deals to date and has exited 38 investments in companies such as CloudCherry, Manthan, Myntra, Newgen, and Xpressbees. It recently raked in a 43x return from its investment in gaming company PlaySimple, which was acquired in July by Swedish digital entertainment company Modern Times Group.
“We are pleased to continue to back stellar Indian entrepreneurs in technology startups, assisting them in growing into dominant leaders in India and globally. We have been repeatedly backed by marquee global and Indian investors,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman of Chiratae Ventures.
Its portfolio companies include mobility company Bounce, health tech startup Cure.fit, e-commerce major Flipkart, and many more. PolicyBazaar, one of its portfolio companies, filed its draft prospectus in August with the Indian market regulator as it prepares to go public.
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TC Meenakshisundaram, founder and managing director of Chiratae Ventures, said, “We are seeing over 3,000 new companies every year. This number will increase further as India grows to a USD 5 trillion economy. Indian insurance companies have also now backed us, which is a game-changer for us.”
With a record number of Indian startups entering the unicorn club this year—20 so far—and around a dozen preparing to go public, there has been a meteoric rise in the availability of venture capital in the market.
Despite reeling from the pandemic, Indian startups raised USD 12.1 billion from private equity and VC funds in the first half of this year, a phenomenal increase compared to USD 11.1 billion in funding in the whole of last year. While local funds are raising more money than expected, global VCs see this as the right time to invest in the country. Around 59 international funds made their maiden investment in Indian startups in 2020 compared to 43 the year before, a report by Praxis Global Alliance said.
