Motilal Oswal Private Equity Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd has finished raising capital for its third sector-agnostic fund at over Rs 2,300 crore ($320 million), it said on Wednesday.
The India Business Excellence Fund-III raised capital from domestic and global institutions, large family offices and high-net-worth individuals, the private equity arm of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd said in a statement.
The fund was launched more than a year ago with a target to raise $250 million. The Mumbai-based PE firm had made a first close in September last year at Rs 940 crore ($147 million then) and had raised Rs 1,400 crore ($220 million) by January this year.
The fund aims to invest in established mid-market businesses with strong growth characteristics, a clear and mature business model and a leading market position. The fund expects to invest in about 12 to 14 companies.
Vishal Tulsyan, managing director and CEO at the PE firm, said that strong demand from existing and new investors helped the fund make its final close in a short span of time.
"India is witnessing a fast emerging class of domestic investors that provides the breadth and depth to Indian private equity industry as a whole," he said.
The new fund has already made three investments in the financial services, consumer and manufacturing segments.
It had first invested in MAS Financial Services, a non-bank lender based out of Gujarat. It had invested Rs 143 crore in the lender in September 2017.
Its second investment was in Mysuru-based N. Ranga Rao & Sons Pvt. Ltd, India's largest maker of incense sticks.
The third investment was in Ludhiana-based Happy Forging Ltd, one of the largest crankshaft manufacturers in India. The fund invested Rs 200 crore in the company in September.
Motilal Oswal Private Equity is a subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, a diversified financial services group with businesses in securities, asset management, private equity and investment banking.
It manages three growth capital funds that typically invest Rs 100-300 crore in mid-market companies across sectors.
The first fund was launched in 2007 and had a corpus of Rs 550 crore. It invested in 13 companies across sectors. It has already made 10 exits.
The second fund, launched in 2012, had a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. It invested in 11 companies across sectors such as financial services, life sciences, niche manufacturing and consumption.
Other mid-sized funds
A number of other private equity firms have also reached fundraising milestones this year.
Homegrown private equity firm TVS Capital Funds Ltd overshot its target for the first close of its new rupee-capital fund on the back of significant demand.
Last month, VCCircle reported that mid-market private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt. Ltd (Multiples PE) had raised nearly half the target corpus for its third fund.
In June, VCCircle reported that Creador had raised the bulk of the corpus for its fourth fund for India and Southeast Asia.
In May, homegrown PE firm CX Partners marked the first close of its second sector-agnostic fund. True North, another homegrown PE firm, is raising around $1 billion and has hit a first milestone.
Another peer, homegrown PE firm Kedaara Capital, last year made the final close of its second fund at $795 million (Rs 5,100 crore), a shade higher than the target of $750 million.
