Micro venture capital firm Gemba Capital, which is an investor in companies such as Alltius, Volt Money, Docube, Kredmint, and Navdhan Capital, among others, has launched its second investment vehicle.
Gemba Capital, a SEBI-registered AIF manager, has set a target corpus of Rs 250 crore for the second fund, including a green shoe option of Rs 50 crore. It is targeting to make the final close of fund by the end of the year.
“Our journey has evolved from investing proprietary capital to running an angel syndicate and then raising and investing from our Rs 70 crore Fund-I,” said Adith Podhar, general partner, Gemba Capital. “. We are now looking to partner with institutional LPs for our INR 250 crore Fund-II.”
From the second fund, Gemba is looking to invest in nearly 30 early-stage ‘platform-first’ businesses across three focus sectors – fintech, consumertech and B2B platforms. It defines digital ‘platform-first’ businesses as those creating compounding moats through ecosystem creation, network effects, or the ability to stack value layers.
It will invest in companies with a first cheque of Rs 5 crore. It will reserve around 30% of the corpus for making follow-on investments.
Gemba Capital, founded in 2018, writes low-friction collaborative cheques. It raised Rs 70 crore for its first fund, a 2022 vintage with an average cheque size of Rs 2 crore. The fund was raised through investments from family offices, founders, and CXOs.
Since its inception, Gemba has invested only in pre-seed/seed rounds. It made less than 10 deals a year and claimed to have focused on value addition in the portfolio companies.
It also claims to have developed a proprietary 'Founder Market Fit Framework' that assists in identifying the right teams to back.
“Founders recognize the immense value we bring to the cap table, which sets us apart. The fund has supported its portfolio companies in multiple areas, including customer introductions, fundraising and strategic planning,” said Govind Lohia, principal at Gemba Capital.
