Chennai-based alternative assets firm Anicut Capital on Tuesday announced that it has received commitment of Rs 75 crore ($9.1) million from Self Reliant India Fund for its equity fund.
The move comes nearly six months after The Anicut Opportunities Fund or the Grand Anicut Fund III hit its first close at Rs 170 crore in June 2022. The fund, with a targeted corpus of Rs 500 crore ($60.5 million), is expected to hit the final close by June this year, Anicut Capital’s founding partner Ashvin Chaddha told VCCircle in an earlier interaction. The fund house now expects to mark the final close by June this year.
“We have raised initial capital from family offices, HNI (high networth individuals) and startup founders. We have built strong relationship with them over multiple years. In addition, we are in advanced discussions with both government and financial institutions to invest in the fund,” Dhruv Kapoor, partner at Anicut Capital said.
So far, Anicut Capital has made five investments amounting to Rs 40 crore from its equity fund, and is in advanced talks with two other firms, according to a press statement. Some of its equity investments include EarthRhythm, Wheelocity, Neemans, The Ayurveda Experience.
Self Reliant India Fund is a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund led by NSIC Venture Capital Fund Ltd, and managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd. The fund has a Rs. 10,000 crore ($1209 million) corpus, organized as a Fund of Funds (FoF), and launched by the government in October 2021, to make equity investments focused on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Along with this commitment, Anicut Capital also onboarded Arun Thathachari as executive director, who will be focused on the fund house’s equity investments. Thathachari has an experience of over 15 years in investment banking, management consulting and corporate development.
Apart from its equity operations, the Chennai-based fund house has a relatively mature credit vertical, and is expected to mark the first close of its Rs 1,500 crore (around $184 million) third debt fund by April this year, Chadha told VCCircle. The fund received Sebi approval in late November and expects to launch in January.
The third debt fund – Grand Anicut Fund 4 – is expected to see its first close at Rs 400 crore ($49.1 million).
In 2022, Anicut closed its second debt fund with a Rs 875 crore corpus. The second debt fund’s average ticket size lies in the Rs 15-100 crore range. Anicut’s first fund was launched in 2016, raising about Rs 400 crore from its limited partners (LPs).