Hyderabad-based advisory services firm Sathguru Management Consultants is raising a Rs 673 crore ($100 million) fund that will invest mainly in companies in food and agriculture sectors across the country, a top company executive told VCCircle.
The fund, christened as Food and Agriculture Fund, is also keen to raise more in future. “We are right now looking at $100 million. However, there is a green-shoe option of $25 million,†said Venu Gopal Chintada, a partner at Sathguru’s fund management firm Sathguru Catalyser Advisors.
The company prefers to invest in 12-14 sub-segments in food and agriculture sectors. “We are predominantly looking at sub-sectors such as seeds, biologicals and food that is nutrition-based,†Chintada said.
The development was first reported by The Economic Times.
“We are anticipating the first close by around June this year and the final close will hopefully take place at the fag end of 2017. We are planning to deploy the entire amount till 2020,†a spokesperson of Sathguru said.
Sathguru is in touch with both domestic and global investors as its hits the road to raise capital.
“LPs would be a mix of investors both from India and abroad. On the domestic side, we are looking at financial institutions such as financial firms and banks. For outside, the talks are going on with development financial institutions and commercial funds of funds,†Chintada said.
Sathguru, which was founded in 1985 by Vijayaraghavan K, offers its services in consulting areas such as strategy, corporate finance and M&A and also advises in terms of technology transfer and innovation.
Among other investment firms focused on the food and agri space, venture capital firm Omnivore Capital is also raising its second India-focused fund which has a target corpus of $75 million.
Private equity firm Everstone Capital Asia also made final close of its third sector-agnostic but consumer theme fund, Everstone Capital Partners III LP, at $730 million last year.
Among Sathguru’s private equity counterparts, Rabo Equity Advisors has raised its second fund, nearly three years after hitting the road to tap global investors.
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