Inventus Capital aims at first close of new fund at $70M; eyes final close by Jan 2013

Inventus Capital Partners, an India-focused, early-stage investment company, is looking to hit the first close of its second venture capital fund at $70 million within a month, a top company executive told VCCircle.

Inventus is hoping to join a slew of VC firms raising new funds and chasing early-stage investments in India at a time when larger private equity firms have struggled to convince limited partners or LPs to back mature and mid-stage growth capital investments in the country.

Inventus started the fundraising for its second fund last November. The final close of the new fund is targeted at $100 million and is scheduled for January 2013, according to Kanwal Rekhi, managing director of Inventus Capital Partners.

This would be twice the size of the maiden fund by Inventus which raised $51.2 million during 2007-09 from a group of 62 investors, as per regulatory disclosures.

If successful in its current initiative, Inventus would join firms like Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital (formerly Indo-US Venture Partners), Nexus Venture Partners, Kae Capital and India Quotient for hitting the first close or completing the final fundraising for new or maiden early-stage VC funds.

However, the investment style would not see any major change. “We are a small VC firm and we have no big money to increase the ticket size,” said Rekhi, who spoke to VCCircle at the sidelines of an entrepreneurship event held in Kochi.

The firm typically leads the first venture round with $1-2 million in funding, with further follow-on funding in the portfolio company.

Inventus, whose portfolio companies are spread across verticals such as IT/ITeS, healthcare education, mobile, etc., has, so far, guided and invested in around 18 companies, with two successful exits already under its belt.

The VC firm ends up investing in around half-a-dozen companies each year and recently, it has put in money in Vizury Interactive, Dhingana.com and Power2sme.

In the past, it has invested in companies including RedBus, eTechies, Savaari, Sokrati, TELiBrahma, Cbazaar, ViVu, Insta Health and Funds India, among others.

On the entrepreneurship environment in Kerala, Rekhi said, “As an investor, we do not have any special investment plans for Kerala startups. However, we are open to invest here as well.”

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)