Aman Rawat

The Investment Trust of India (ITI), a financial services group backed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd director Sudhir Valia, has made the first close of its second venture capital fund, the ITI Growth Opportunities Fund II.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The investor, which has backed companies like charging infrastructure platform Bolt.Earth and skincare firm Cureskin, has achieved the milestone with a Rs 80 crore corpus, Mohit Gulati, managing general partner at the fund, told VCCircle.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The fund invests in seed to pre-Series A stages. It also co-invests in Series A stages selectively. Its average ticket size ranges between $100,000 and $500,000. It also helps startups with strategic insights and industry connections.&nbsp;

ITI launched its first fund,&nbsp;ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, in 2018. The fund had a target corpus of Rs 100, along with a greenshoe option of Rs 50 crore. Gulati claimed that the first fund&rsquo;s internal rate of return (IRR) stood at 34%. To be sure, venture capital funds in India typically chase an IRR of 20-30% in rupee terms.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The fund&rsquo;s other portfolio companies include shoewear brand Redwing, fintech startup Getepay.in, healthy snacking brand Evolve Snacks, HRtech platform Coffeee.io, agritech startups Fasal and Grow Better, accounting software Refrens, podcast hosting service provider Hubhopper, ready to drink mocktail maker Cravova Food and Beverages, petcare company Papa Pawsome, tea brand Brewed Leaf, SaaS platform for spa and salon Glamplus, AI solutions provider Vicara, healthcare startup Medyseva, and documentation platform Subtl.ai.

The Investment Trust of India (ITI), a financial services group backed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd director Sudhir Valia, has made the first close of its second venture capital fund, the ITI Growth Opportunities Fund II.  

The investor, which has backed companies like charging infrastructure platform Bolt.Earth and skincare firm Cureskin, ......

Cureskin, Fasal backer ITI Group makes first close of second VC fund

Finance

Sreeja Biswas

Family offices and non-family professionals who manage their investments must align their long-term strategy to maintain discipline and gain an edge over other investors, said Rishabh Mariwala, managing partner of Sharrp Ventures.&nbsp;

&ldquo;The family should be clear with who&rsquo;s the decision maker, what is the strategy, what is the cheque size, and what is the quantum of capital they&rsquo;re going to invest,&rdquo; Mariwala said during a fireside chat at the VCCircle Family Office Summit 2024 in Mumbai on Friday. &ldquo;In order to maintain discipline, these grey areas must be discussed openly,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp;

The interaction focused on the extent to which family offices need to professionalize management for making the right investment decisions and whether the next generation of business families is equally capable of taking the reins.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Sharrp Ventures is the family office of Harsh Mariwala, who heads the fast-moving consumer goods maker Marico Ltd. It has over $350 million in assets under management. It was established in 2014 and targets consumer and consumer-tech companies. The firm has backed companies such as Mamaearth, Nykaa, SleepyCat, and MCaffeine, among others.&nbsp; &nbsp;

In December 2023, Sharrp Ventures participated in the $10.2 million Series B funding round of beauty and wellness brand Nat Habit. It also co-led reusable diaper brand SuperBottoms&rsquo; $5 million Series A1 funding round with Lok Capital in 2023. In March 2024, Sharrp Ventures participated in the $20 million Series B funding round of consumer healthcare startup CureSkin alongside HealthQuad, JSW Ventures, and Khosla Ventures.&nbsp; &nbsp;

During the interaction, Mariwala emphasized the growth of family offices in India, noting that strategic alignment between professionals and the family office helps maintain a competitive edge against venture capital and private equity firms.&nbsp; &nbsp;

&ldquo;As a family office, at least in the country today, it is still seen as a one-man show where the family is the final decision maker,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;These myths must be broken.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Family offices and non-family professionals who manage their investments must align their long-term strategy to maintain discipline and gain an edge over other investors, said Rishabh Mariwala, managing partner of Sharrp Ventures. 

“The family should be clear with who’s the decision maker, what is the strategy, what is the cheque size, ......

Family offices, professionals must align strategy: Sharrp Ventures’ Mariwala at VCCircle summit

Healthcare-focused&nbsp;venture capital&nbsp;firm&nbsp;HealthQuad, which has clocked two exits over the past few months, is in talks to sell its stake in two more companies as it looks to wrap up its maiden fund, VCCircle has learnt.&nbsp;

The VC firm, started by the co-founders of private equity firm Quadria Capital, raised its debut fund in 2016 and 2017 and mopped up a total of Rs 75 crore. It invested in seven companies and has so far exited three of those.&nbsp;

HealthQuad is now actively exploring monetisation opportunities from two more companies and will begin the process to exit another company next year, two people aware of the VC firm&rsquo;s plans told VCCircle.&nbsp;

The firm deployed its maiden fund in hospital chain Regency Health, biotech firm Strand Life Sciences, Asian Institute of Nephrology and Urology (AINU), medical supplies platform Medikabazaar, clinical data aggregation and intelligence platform THB, telemedicine services provider Neurosynaptic Communications, and healthcare staffing firm Hi-impact Consultants.&nbsp;

HealthQuad exited Strand Life in 2021 when Reliance Industries bought the company. It monetised its investment in AINU late last year when TPG-backed Asia Healthcare Holdings acquired the nephrology chain. The VC firm checked out of Regency in November last year by selling its stake to Norwest Venture Partners.&nbsp;

The firm&nbsp;likely generated internal rate of return (IRR)of over 20% from AINU and a similar annualised return from Regency Health, VCCircle&nbsp;reported earlier. It also made a partial exit from Medikabazaar, which yielded 89% IRR, the people cited above said.&nbsp;

The people also said that VC firm is now in active discussions to sell its stake in THB, which is operated by Sekhmet Technologies Pvt Ltd, and is exploring opportunities with interested parties for Neurosynaptic Communications.&nbsp;The firm will likely also initiate a sale process for Medikabazaar within the next 12 months, they said.&nbsp;

&ldquo;The projected returns from the remaining sales are estimated to be between 4x and 5x at the fund level,&rdquo; one of the people said, without elaborating.&nbsp;

Overall, HealthQuad plans to fully exit the first fund within the next 18 months, the people said, adding that the firm hopes to clock benchmark returns from the vehicle.&nbsp;

Private equity and venture capital firms typically chase 20-30% IRR at the fund level in rupee terms.&nbsp;

HealthQuad manages more than $200 million across two funds. It is currently investing out of its second fund, which has a corpus of $162 million.&nbsp;The second fund is expected to generate returns upwards of 35%, the people said.&nbsp; &nbsp;

The Delhi-based VC firm invested in Qure.ai, ekincare, Red.health, Redcliffe Lifesciences, Wysa, GoApptiv, CureSkin, ImpactGuru, BeatO, and HealthifyMe from its second fund.&nbsp;

Healthcare-focused venture capital firm HealthQuad, which has clocked two exits over the past few months, is in talks to sell its stake in two more companies as it looks to wrap up its maiden fund, VCCircle has learnt. 

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HealthQuad weighs two more exits, sets sight on wrapping up debut fund

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Malvika Maloo

Billionaire Sajjan Jindal-led JSWW Group&rsquo;s corporate venture capital arm JSW Ventures has struck a full exit from a seven-year-old investment from its first fund which it floated in 2015.&nbsp;

The early-stage VC company, which typically invests in B2B and B2C tech companies across financial services, healthcare, consumer, agri and SaaS companies, has sold its residual stake in e-tailing unicorn Purplle.&nbsp;

According to JSW Ventures&rsquo; managing partner Sachin Tagra, it has managed to spin returns to the tune of 18x after selling stake in the BPC startup to Manipal Education &amp; Medical Group family office (MEMG) in a secondary transaction.&nbsp;

As for JSW Ventures&rsquo; Rs 100-crore first fund, which has managed to reward its limited partners with as much as 2.7x returns, it had struck investments in five companies. These included Purplle; design solutions marketplace Homelane; online platform for restaurants, Limetray; OS Labs and the now defunct e-commerce marketplace Overkart.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Fund I has exited from four bets barring Homelane. Currently, it has an internal rate of return (IRR) of over 30%. As for the investment in Purplle, JSW Ventures clocked an IRR of 57%,&rdquo; Tagra told VCCircle.&nbsp;

The investor bought a stake in Purplle back in 2016 for around $1 million in its Series A round of funding.&nbsp;

After participating in multiple follow-on rounds, JSW Ventures&rsquo; stake in Purplle stood at 3.65% as of March 2020. It bought an additional stake in 2021, taking its share in the startup to 3.95%.&nbsp;

Cumulatively, JSW Ventures is said to have invested $2.35 million for the 3.95% stake.&nbsp;

The latest sale to MEMG follows a partial exit from Purplle in May, when it sold some stake to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). &nbsp;

To be sure, at that time Purplle commanded a valuation of $1.1 billion, unchanged from the figure derived in June 2022.

The consumer unicorn, owned and operated by Manash Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd, was founded in 2012 by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash. The company has raised about $250 million so far, including from Goldman Sachs and Verlinvest.

JSW Ventures did not comment on the value of the current transaction.&nbsp;

The investor is in the process of deploying its second fund, which has a corpus of Rs 350 crore. It marked the final close in March 2022 and has invested in EV firm MoEVing, SaaS startups HealthPlix and &nbsp;Zvolv, and beauty and personal care brand Cureskin.

&ldquo;We still have some capital to deploy,&rdquo; said Tagra on the timeline for a third fund. &nbsp;&ldquo;Once we deploy the capital, then of course we will go further.&rdquo;

Billionaire Sajjan Jindal-led JSWW Group’s corporate venture capital arm JSW Ventures has struck a full exit from a seven-year-old investment from its first fund which it floated in 2015. 

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JSW Ventures on track to wrap up maiden fund with fresh exit

Consumer

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