Homegrown Motilal Oswal Private Equity (MOPE) on Tuesday announced launch of its fourth sector agnostic fund with a target corpus of $550 million.
VCCircle was the first to report last week that the PE fund, which has been investing in India since 2007, that the asset manager is in the process to register its fourth vehicle with SEBI.
The fund, set up as an alternate investment fund (AIF Category II), plans to to achieve first close before December 2021 and conclude fundraising within 9-12 months.
” As with our previous funds, even with IBEF IV, we will continue to pursue our time-tested investment framework of QGLP (Quality, Growth, Longevity and Price) to back market-leading, mid-market companies in our preferred sectors, ” Vishal Tulsyan, managing director at MOPE, said.
Tulsyan claims that unlike other Indian fund managers and continuing the legacy from previous three funds, the major part of the corpus will be secured from domestic investors.
In terms of focus sectors, IBEF IV plans to build a diversified portfolio of 10 – 12 investments across MOPE’s preferred sectors of consumer, financial services, life sciences and niche manufacturing.
It may also evaluate and selectively invest in emerging new age business models with digital distribution channels, within its preferred sectors.
The asset manager finished raising capital for its third sector-agnostic fund at over Rs 2,300 crore ($320 million) in 2018.
Investments from the fund include those in MAS Financial Services, a non-bank lender based out of Gujarat; Mysuru-based N Ranga Rao & Sons, India's largest maker of incense sticks; and Ludhiana-based Happy Forging Ltd.
MOPE's last bet came in March 2020 when it invested Rs 240 crore in Molbio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd.
The second fund, launched in 2012, had a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore and invested in 11 companies across sectors such as financial services, life sciences, niche manufacturing and consumption.
MOPE’s first fund, launched in 2007, had a corpus of Rs 550 crore and invested in 13 companies across sectors. The asset manager has already made 10 exits from that vehicle.
The PE fund is also in the process of making a few exits from its second fund. It is said to be mulling a full exit from a non-bank lender that it had invested across two funding rounds in 2015 and early 2018.
In February, VCCircle reported MOPE had roped in investment bank Rothschild & Co to exit another second-fund investment in a staple food maker.
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a spanner in the fundraising efforts of private equity and venture capital firms in India over the past one year. Hence, not too many PE firms showed keenness to hit the market for securing capital.
Kedaara Capital was eyeing nearly $1 billion for its third fund and made its first close recently, according to a media report.
In September last year, mid-market private equity firm Carpediem Capital hit the road to raise its second fund.
In May last year, VCCircle reported that homegrown PE firm Gaja Capital kicked off the process of raising money for its third fund. The same month, VCCircle reported that Sixth Sense Ventures was floating a new venture capital fund.
