Homegrown real estate developer Brigade Group has teamed up with Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai-led investment fund Gruhas to launch a real estate-focused investment fund aimed at supporting Indian proptech and sustainability-driven startups.
The Earth Fund, an investment vehicle set up under Zoiros Projects Pvt Ltd, is a Category II alternative investment fund (AIF) with a target corpus of Rs 200 crore and an additional Rs 100 crore greenshoe option. Zoiros Projects is backed by Brigade Group and Gruhas.
So far, the fund has secured over 30% of its commitments from Brigade and Gruhas.
The fund will focus on investing in 10-15 pre-Series A and Series A-stage tech startups within the real estate space, disbursing an average cheque size of around $1-2 million (Rs 8.6-17.3 crore) per company.
Key investment areas for the Earth Fund include property technology, construction tech, real estate solutions, and asset utilization. The fund will also target sustainability sectors such as climate tech, clean tech, smart mobility, and energy solutions.
The Earth Fund is led by Abhijeet Pai, Nikhil Kamath, Brigade Enterprises’ joint managing director Nirupa Shankar, and Mohan Parvatikar, independent director at Zoiros.
"Our goal is to bridge the gap between traditional real estate and cutting-edge technology, fostering an ecosystem for sustainable and efficient urban solutions," Shankar said.
The Bengaluru-based investment firm said that Gruhas, which has already invested in over 50 startups across proptech, climate tech, sustainability, and consumer sectors, will play a key role in identifying and supporting ventures for the Earth Fund.
The Earth Fund builds on the Brigade Real Estate Accelerator Program (REAP), which was launched by Brigade over eight years ago and has invested in over 80 companies across the urbantech and sustainability value chain.
Last week, VCCircle reported that the managing partner of the proptech investor left the firm after serving nearly a year and a half.
