Gruhas, a proptech investment firm owned equally by entrepreneurs Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai, is looking to raise Rs 2,000 crore across three funds over the course of the next few quarters. The three funds focus on real estate debt and equity investment in prop tech and new age materials respectively.
Kamath has co-founded Zerodha Broking Ltd and is also the founder of True Beacon, an alternative assets manager. Pai is the President of Puzzolana Machinery Fabricators, a mining and construction equipment manufacturing company.
The Gruhas real estate debt fund has already been launched with a target size of Rs 500 crore. It will focus on projects which need last mile completion and plotting. It is targeting an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 20% over a 3 to 5-year period.
The prop tech firm while is slated to launch soon will invest in startups in areas like fractional real estate, water metering and home loan platforms for the budget segment (Rs 15-35 lakh). Factional real estate allows investors to own small portions of homes and offices rather than the whole property. The third fund, focusing on new age materials will be launched in the second quarter of FY 2023. The proptech and materials funds are expected to have a 5-7 year tenure.
"We expect a 35% CAGR from each of the equity funds," Pai said.
All three funds will be structured as Category II AIFs. Kamath and Pai jointly own Gruhas which will be the General Partner (GP) sponsoring the AIFs. Gruhas will take a 50% stake in the GP entity.
According to Kamath, the idea is to democratise real estate investing by investing in companies or platforms that offer services like fractional ownership. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) allow small investors to invest in commercial real estate in a diversified manner, but not in specific properties that the investor may be bullish on, he added.
