International Finance Corporation (IFC) plans to invest $20 million (around Rs 144 crore) in Chiratae Ventures' new fund, the World Bank's private-sector investment arm said.
IFC said it plans to invest in Mauritius-incorporated Chiratae Ventures International Fund IV LLC and India-domiciled alternative investment fund Chiratae Ventures Master Fund IV.
The two funds are collectively referred to as Fund IV, IFC said in disclosure.
IFC's board will discuss the investment proposal on September 30.
The Washington-headquartered institution says it expects its proposed investment to have a positive impact in terms of the increased access to equity capital for early-stage technology companies. It will also see the development of more products and services for consumers, especially those in non-Tier-I cities, IFC said.
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 also lends to companies in the country.
Previously, in 2017, IFC had invested in the third India-focussed fund of Chiratae, which was then known as IDG Ventures India.
IDG Ventures India was set up in 2007 by Sudhir Sethi and TCM Sundaram. The early-stage venture fund rebranded itself to Chiratae last year. Companies in its portfolio include Bizongo, PlayShifu, Miko and CureFit.
IFC
This is the second proposed limited partnership investment commitment by IFC in less than a month. In August, it proposed placing $25 million (around Rs 180.47 crore) in the second fund of healthcare-focussed private equity firm Quadria Capital. The Quadria Capital Fund II has a target size of $400 million and a hard cap of $500 million.
In May, IFC proposed to contribute $12 million (around Rs 83.6 crore) to the Accion Quona Inclusion Fund. Quona Capital was earlier called the Frontier Investment Group, which was part of Accion International. It is now a separate firm although Accion is an anchor investor in its fund.
In March, it proposed to come on as an LP in the debut venture capital fund of investment firm A91 Partners by putting in $25 million (around Rs 177 crore) A91 Emerging Fund I LLP. The target corpus of the fund was pegged at $250-$300 million.
Last year, it proposed to come on as an LP by committing $100 million (around Rs 650 crore then) to the India Resurgence Fund, which was set up by Bain Capital Credit and Piramal Enterprises in 2016.