Endiya Partners said it has received a commitment of $10 million (around Rs 75 crore) from International Finance Corporation (IFC) for direct co-investment deals with the early-stage venture capital firm.
The fresh commitment is in addition to the $10 million that the World Bank’s private-sector investment arm had proposed to invest in Endiya’s second fund earlier this year, the VC firm said in a statement.
Sateesh Andra, partner at Endiya Partners, said the co-investment amount committed by IFC could be used to support its portfolio companies as they scale.
Jun Zhang, IFC country head for India, said that early-stage venture capital investment volumes in India are markedly lower than in countries like the US and China. “Our investment in VC funds like Endiya helps mobilize capital from other LPs and brings that capital to path-breaking early-stage businesses,” he added.
IFC has an active limited partner (LP) portfolio in India where it backs private equity and VC funds. It also makes direct PE-style investments and lends to companies in the country.
Its other LP-style bets include a proposal in April to invest $10 million in a new private equity fund of India Alternatives.
Last year, IFC said it planned to invest $20 million in VC firm Chiratae Ventures’ new fund, $25 million in the second fund of healthcare-focused PE firm Quadria Capital, and $12 million in Accion Quona Inclusion Fund.
IFC also proposed to come in as an LP in the debut VC fund of investment firm A91 Partners, floated by former executives at Sequoia Capital. A91 Partners exceeded the corpus target for debut fund last year.
Endiya Partners, founded in 2015 by Sateesh Andra and Ramesh B Byrapaneni, had marked the first close of its second fund at $40 million in May last year. The second fund has a target corpus of Rs 500 crore ($70 million).
The second fund had received commitments from most of Endiya’s existing LPs, or investors. Its LP pool includes funds of funds, family offices, global companies and entrepreneurs.
The new fund's investment strategy is similar to its previous fund with a focus on business-to-business (B2B) startups in the technology and healthcare sectors and select bets in the consumer segment.
The second fund seeks to invest between $500,000 and $1.5 million in the seed and pre-Series A rounds across 15-16 startups. It will commit up to $5 million in a single company.
Endiya Partners had hit the final close of its debut fund at Rs 175 crore (around $26 million) in early 2017.
The first fund made 12 investments including early bets on fintech startup Kissht, medical-technology startup SigTuple and enterprise HR management platform Darwinbox