Chennai based early-stage sector-agnostic investment firm Fulcrum Venture India (FVI) has marked its first exit from its portfolio by selling out its stake in a small property developer Casa Grande Pvt Ltd to the management, a top executive told VCCircle.
Casa Grande was one of its first investments made way back in 2004. FVI came in as a seed investor in the fresh venture. The real estate developer had a turnover of Rs 94 crore in the company last year. Casa Grande predominantly develops residential buildings in Chennai and it is expanding into Bangalore and Coimbatore.
Krishna Ramanathan, founder partner, FVI, said, “We have exited the company with a valuation of Rs 100 crore which gives us a 10.2x multiple, translating into nearly 54 per cent internal rate of returns (IRR).â€
FVI held 50 per cent stake in the realty company and the management of the company has bought out the investor’s stake. Casa Grande has developed 1.5 million square. feet and has a pipeline of projects worth about Rs 750 crore, which will be executed in the next two-and-a-half years.
The investment firm plans to use the money raised through this exit in other early-stage companies and has already lined up two investments. These include a software services company and a pharma company. It will invest close to Rs 5-10 crore in each investment.
FVI had last month invested Rs 15 crore in Mumbai-based Richfeel in a Series B round of funding for the hair and scalp treatment venture. Ramanathan said this was a growth capital funding and FVI is now looking at many other companies.
“We have a rich pipeline to deploy the money that we have. We have received interest from a lot of families and others in Chennai, who have looked at co-investments with us,†said Ramanathan.
FVI also counts among its portfolio companies such as Curatio Healthcare (pharma company focused on dermatological formulations), SwaaS Systems (sales force automation solution for pharma sector) and CMYK Health Boutique (which runs The Four Fountain Spa chain).
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)