Venture Catalyst floated Beams Fintech Fund on Tuesday said it has completed the first close of its maiden growth-stage fund.
The firm said it has received up to $36 million (around Rs 270 crore) in commitments for the fund and is nearing completion of the documentation.
Beams will invest in early-stage firms that operate at the crossroads of financial services and technology. The fund seeks to attain its target corpus of $100 million in the next nine months.
The first close saw participation from domestic and international investors including banks, NBFCs (non-banking financial companies), large family offices, financial service executives and fintech founders, it said without disclosing further information.
Existing investors of Venture Catalysts and 9 Unicorns also backed Beams in its first close, it said.
Beams said it will focus on six major themes within the fintech space such as embedded finance, products and technologies, enterprise SAAS, Neo banks and platforms catering to MSMEs.
The fund was floated to invest in Series B and C rounds and aims to invest in 10-12 companies.
“It’s remarkable for us to achieve a First Close for Beams in just a few months after the official launch. Thanks to our investors. This success in fund raising has come on the back of the track record and the team that we have built for Beams.
We are building a strong operating team with a deep experience in the fintech space for the execution of this growth stage investing strategy and founders are appreciating the same,” said Anuj Golecha, Co-Founder and Partner at Beams Fintech Fund.
Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder and Investment Committee Member, Beams Fintech Fund, said, “Through this fund and the platform, we aim to provide investors with a value creation opportunity in the fintech domain and access to one of the most powerful fintech networks in India.
With strong institutional investor interest in Beams, we aim to back several fast-growing Fintech founders from our Fund 1 and create more than $25-30 Bn in value for the Fintech ecosystem over the next couple of years.”
The fund marked its debut investment with Niyo, the consumer neobanking company that raised $100 million in Series C funding.
Beams was launched by Sagar Agarvwal, Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain.
The founding team of Beams had earlier invested in companies such as BharatPe, Dukaan, Flobiz, Esskay, Impact Guru, Suryoday, Klub, GetVantage, and LenDenClub.
The fund also has roped in the Chairman of the Fintech Convergence Council and Founder of ItzCash (now EbixInc) Naveen Surya as part of the core founding team.