PE firm Gaja Capital marks final close of new fund at $240M

By Anuradha Verma

  • 17 Mar 2016
Gopal Jain, managing partner, Gaja Capital

Growth-stage private equity firm Gaja Capital has made the final close of its second fund at $240 million, The Economic Times reported citing managing partner Gopal Jain.

An emailed query to a company spokesperson on the development didn’t elicit any response by the time of filing this article.

The firm had made first close of the fund at $130 million in October 2014. At the time, Jain had told VCCircle that the hard cap of the fund was $250 million.

The Mumbai-based firm focuses on the consumption segment, with emphasis on the education, financial services, consumer and healthcare sectors.

It has announced two transactions from its second investment vehicle. In February last year, it had led a Rs 60 crore round of funding in frozen bakery and confectionery producer and supplier Bakers Circle, while in October, it invested about Rs 65 crore in sports and fitness education venture SportzVillage.

The fund, named Gaja II, will primarily invest in ventures that are seven to 10 years old and which have been set up by first-generation entrepreneurs. It will look to make eight to 10 investments, with the ticket size ranging from $5 million to $40 million.

The fund’s limited partners include International Finance Corp, the World Bank’s private-sector investment arm.

Gaja’s previous fund had a corpus of $180 million and was raised in 2007-08. This fund invested in pre-school chain EuroKids, automotive services company Carnation Auto, private-sector lender RBL Bank, education and training services company CL Educate and staffing company TeamLease.