Motilal Oswal Alternate Investment Advisors (MO Alts), on Monday announced the final close of its fourth mid-market growth capital-focused private equity fund with commitments of Rs 4,500 crore.
The India Business Excellence Fund IV (IBEF IV) has been primarily raised from domestic high networth individuals (HNIs) and family offices. With this fund, MO Alts’ cumulative AUM (assets under management) between real estate and growth capital now stands at around Rs 14,000 crore, according to a statement by the MO Alts (erstwhile MOPE Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd).
Approximately 75% of the capital in aggregate across all the funds has been raised from domestic investors across 55 cities in the country, the statement further added.
The private equity firm, a subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, has made 37 investments and has completed 15 exits since its inception. This is the fourth growth capital fund raised by MO Alts.
In April, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank, committed at least $35 million to IBEF IV.
The fund has already made two investments—in Pathkind, a diagnostic chain promoted by the Mankind Pharma group, and Simpolo, a player in the premium tile segment. In addition, there are two investments where a definitive has been signed. MO Alts expects to commit around 50% of the fund by March 2023.
The fourth fund, managed by Motilal Oswal Alternate Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd led by Vishal Tulsyan and Raamdeo Agrawal, is much bigger than its third vehicle which marked the final close of raising capital at over Rs 2,300 crore ($320 million) in 2018.
A category II alternative investment fund (AIF), IBEF IV has been registered with the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) through the India Business Excellence Fund IV G (GIFT Fund), a trust formed in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.
One of the recent investments was in the healthy snacks company, Happilo - also backed by A91 Partners - which was from its third fund.
“Over the past decade, more than 50% of private capital that got invested in China was raised locally. For India, that number is abysmally low, but over the next 10 years, if we (industry and government) put in effort towards this direction there is no reason why we will not be able to achieve similar numbers,” said Vishal Tulsyan, managing director and chief executive officer, MO Alts.
The third fund's investments also include MAS Financial Services, a Gujarat-based listed non-bank lender; Mysuru-based N Ranga Rao & Sons, India's largest maker of incense sticks, Ludhiana-based Happy Forging Ltd and Molbio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd which turned unicorn last week after raising additional capital from Singapore-based Temasek.
Including the four growth capital funds, Motilal Oswal PE also manages five real estate funds.
