Genpact founder and former CEO Pramod Bhasin and former vice chairman of Credit Suisse Vikram Gandhi, who now runs his own boutique investment banking firm, have invested in Bangalore-based Unitus Seed Fund through their joint social enterprise-focused fund ‘Virtual Fund,’ they said on Monday.
Bhasin, who stepped down as the CEO of Genpact in mid-2011, had earlier teamed up with Pia Singh, daughter of DLF chairman KP Singh, for a venture in the education and training sector, named Skills Academy.
He had also invested in Kolkata-based Lexplosion Solutions Pvt Ltd, a legal and compliance management company, in his personal capacity.
For Gandhi, who is also setting up Asha Impact, an impact investment and policy advocacy organisation, this marks a back-to-back impact investment transaction.
Last month, he co-invested with Ratan Tata and others in Grameen Capital's social impact debt funding arm. Gandhi separately runs VSG Capital Advisors.
Unitus Seed Fund has raised over $20 million across its offshore and India funds in the last three years. A sector agnostic fund, it focuses on healthcare, education, mobile commerce and value-added services, marketplaces and e-commerce, retail and distribution, agriculture, water and energy sectors.
The seed-stage investment fund based in Bangalore (India) and Seattle (the US) had earlier secured investment commitment from Vinod Khosla (founder, Khosla Ventures and Khosla Impact), 500 Startups, Mike Murray (co-founder of Unitus Labs), Jeff Clark and Bob Gay (Bain Capital), TV Mohandas Pai (former Infosys CFO and now an active angel investor) and Ranjan Pai (CEO of Manipal Education and Medical Group).
Unitus has already announced 16 investments in India including online micro-lending platform Milaap, artisan products retailer Caravan Craft, online three-wheeler hailing service m-Gaadi and rural education service company Hippocampus.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
