Ahmedabad-based GVFL Ltd (formerly known as Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd), on Wednesday said it has marked the first close of its ninth fund at Rs 185 crore ($23.7 million).
GVFL’s fund, which aims to raise a total corpus Rs 500 crore, will be invested in technology-driven startups across edtech, healthtech, agritech, biotech and consumer business, among others.
The VC firm also aims to support government initiatives like Startup India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it said in a statement.
The category-II alternate investment fund (AIF) has received approval from markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
“The entrepreneurs are disrupting traditional business models across the sectors with tech-driven business models. These entrepreneurs are supported by an active angel investors ecosystem and by venture capitalist having a large pool of capital. Government also has been a keen enabler for the growth of startups ecosystem in the country.
In the last 3 years, the startup activity has grown exponentially. We believe that in the next 5 years, this ecosystem will grow manifolds,” said GVFL in a statement.
In 2016, GVFL had rolled out its startup-focussed eighth fund. The fund invested in 13 startups including Frazzo, Sequretek, Pet Pooja and Qarmatek, among others.
Across its nine funds, GVFL has backed 96 companies so far.
In November 2020, Pivoting Softwares Pvt Ltd, which operates client lifecycle software-as-a-service firm Clientjoy, has raised $800,000 (about Rs 6 crore) in a pre-Series A round from GVFL Ltd.
Last year, restaurant platform Petpooja, operated by Prayosha Food Services Pvt. Ltd, raised $4.5 million (around Rs 34 crore) in a funding round led by Aroa Ventures, with participation from GVFL, Udaan, and Dr Mayur Desai, among others.
