- ₹450 crores fund size (₹330 crores + ₹120 crores greenshoe)
- Will invest in growth rounds of Artha Venture Fund and Artha India Ventures portfolio startups
- The average investment size would be ₹20 crores per investment in Series B and ₹20 crores follow-on in Series C
- The first term sheet is signed
- The Fund will announce the first close shortly
- Mumbai-based Artha Group announced the launch of its ₹450 crores winners-only microVC fund – Artha Select Fund (’ASF’).
ASF will back category-winning startups from Artha’s portfolio in their follow-on rounds. The Fund will commit up to ₹20 crores in the Series B round and an additional ₹20 crores in the Series C round in startups where Artha is already an investor. ASF will back 12-14 startups through this vehicle.
ASF raised its first ₹100 crores in less than 3 weeks, as current LPs enthusiastically chose to double down on the winners of Artha Venture Fund (‘AVF’) – India’s first early-stage microVC Fund. The established winners of AVF include LenDenClub, Agnikul, Everest Fleet, HobSpace, InstaAstro, KarmaLife, etc.
Artha announced the final close of AVF in June 2021 at over ₹225 crores, exceeding its target corpus of ₹200 crores. The Fund has made 27 investments so far, with a combined valuation of ₹3,600+ crores. AVF has provided spectacular portfolio returns to investors with a 3.61x MoIC (Multiple on Invested Capital) and 120%+ IRR as the earliest investor in these startups.
AVF’s portfolio startup Daalchini raised its Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures. AVF had led Daalchini’s seed and Pre-Series A rounds. Besides, AVF recently announced its investment into circular-economy startup Nirmalaya.
Bhavin Patel, CEO, and Founder of LenDenClub, India’s largest P2P-lending platform, said, “Artha has been a true partner for LenDenClub, investing in us when we were disbursing just 8-10 loans per month. In those early days, with their support and understanding of working with other startups, Dipesh and I could establish solid KPIs for the business and ensure that our business decisions were based on data.”
In December 2021, LenDenClub raised a $10m Series A from Ohm Enterprises (Amal Parikh’s family office), Tuscan Ventures, Som Ventures LLP, QED Innovation Labs, Angel List, ace Indian cricket Hardik Pandya, and Shajikumar Devakar (IIFL Wealth).
“Artha led our seed round and doubled down on that investment in the Pre-Series A. In addition, their $1.8m investment in the Series A round increased the investor’s confidence, aiding us in closing the round quickly,” Patel added.
LenDenClub has grown 20x since it closed its Series A round, disbursing more than ₹1000 crores through its platform in August 2022 – the first Indian P2P platform to achieve that milestone.
Artha will announce its first close along with its first investment shortly.
Chris Kolenaty, Head of Private Investments at the Kirloskar Family Office, says, “Over the last decade, the Kirloskar family has built an understanding of assessing private companies, opportunities, and entrepreneurs through venture investing. I met Anirudh 8 years ago in Dublin and stayed in touch with him as he grew the Artha portfolio. We became increasingly comfortable with Anirudh during AVF’s second close and decided to hit go this time. We see him becoming one of India’s top private investors and are excited to collaborate with him!”
Anirudh A. Damani – Managing Partner, Artha Select Fund, says, “We are ecstatic with the fantastic response to our winner’s Fund. We see early-growth rounds as an amazing investment opportunity to back founders at a critical inflection point in their venture journey. With ASF, we provide our founders with the added firepower to chase sound business metrics like revenues, positive unit economics, and profitability!”
About Artha Select Fund
Artha Select Fund (ASF) is a growth stage microVC fund with a target size of ₹450 crores launched by the Artha Group of Companies. ASF is a unique winners-only strategy that will invest in the top-performing startups from the Group’s portfolio of 100+ direct startup investments focussing on Series B & C rounds.Led by Anirudh A Damani, a second-generation investor, the firm has a network of limited partners, co-investors, founders, and family offices that traverse the globe.
Artha Group, the umbrella entity of ASF, has investments in 100+ startups across India, the US, Israel, Africa, and the UK. OYO, Purplle, LeveragEdu, Tala, IconBuild, Rapido, Coutloot, Chai Break, Karza Technologies, and Mobilewalla are some leading startups in its global portfolio.
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