Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has doubled his investment in the debut fund of alternative asset management firm Roots Ventures.
Japan Vyas, co-founder of Roots Ventures, said in a statement Sharma's decision to increase his commitment amidst the pandemic will help the investment firm’s fundraising efforts. He didn’t specify the amount Sharma committed.
The fund aims to mark the final close in December this year at near its targeted corpus of Rs 200 crore.
The investment firm is in advanced discussions with a couple of domestic and international fund-of-funds and niche wealth advisory outfits to get their commitments, Vyas said.
VCCircle had first reported about Roots Ventures’ fundraising progress in August. Vyas had said at the time that the debut fund had raised upwards of Rs 100 crore.
Roots Ventures was floated by Vyas, a co-founder and former managing partner at Sixth Sense Ventures, along with his former IDFC colleague Ravinder Vashist. Its debut fund had marked its first close at Rs 45 crore as soon as it had received regulatory approval.
Besides Paytm’s Sharma, other key investors in the fund include Pravin Gandhi of Seedfund; Sandeep Kohli, former CEO of Yum International for the Indian subcontinent; and Kushal and Chaitanya Desai of Apar Industries. Most of its Limited Partners (LPs) are domestic.
Roots Ventures had made its debut investment in EM & EM Personal Care Pvt. Ltd, which owns pet grooming brand Captain Zack and personal care brand Coccoon, in January last year. Since then it has made nine more investments in companies such as ayurvedic beauty brand Just Herbs, premium products discovery platform Smytten, specialty tea brand Teamonk, payments startup Remitr and healthy food company Kaarya Naturals.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma's investments
Sharma, one of the poster boys of India's startup ecosystem, has made bets on a few venture capital funds besides directly making personal investments in startups.
His most recent LP-style bet was on Arkam Ventures, a VC firm floated by former executives at Helion Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. He was also an investor in early-stage VC firm India Quotient's debut fund.
Sharma had also launched a $150-million environment protection fund Massive Fund in June 2018.
