3one4 Capital, an early-stage venture capital (VC) fund, on Wednesday announced that it has raised its second fund, with commitments of Rs250 crore.
The Bengaluru-based fund had an initial target of Rs150 crore. However, given the strong investor interest, it raised another Rs100 crore through a green shoe option, according to a statement.
With the new corpus, the fund will look to enhance its deep involvement model across its investment domains and work closely with companies.
“We can add a lot of value beyond capital. We work closely with corporates and government agencies around the world like banks, telecom companies etc., and constantly study their road maps in order to facilitate the working of start-ups. We identify companies which solve real problems and help them grow,” said Pranav Pai, founder, 3one4 Capital.
Backed by T.V. Mohandas Pai, former senior executive at Infosys Ltd and an active angel investor, 3one4 Capital launched its first fund of Rs100 crore in 2016 and has so far invested in more than 40 companies including Faircent.com, OnlineTyari, Tracxn, Charmboard, and YourStory. The focus areas of the fund span across machine-driven actionable intelligence services for enterprises, enterprise automation, ambient intelligence technologies, education-tech, fintech, media and content development and health-focused companies.
“We work on select market categories. On consumer-focused companies, we generally segment the target audience. We see if the market is big enough and invest accordingly. So far we have done a couple of things in the consumer space. We are aiming for the solutions that technology creates and would continue to do so,” said Pai.
3one4 Capital generally makes early-stage investments with ticket sizes ranging from $250,000 to $2 million.
The fund’s limited partners (investors in a VC fund) include well-known names such as Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder, Infosys; N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder, Infosys and Catamaran Ventures; Reliance Ventures; Nandan Nilekani’s family office; and Mohandas Pai’s family office.
“What we hear from our LPs is that we have a very good access to some of the good companies. The other thing which makes our LPs satisfied is the kind of governance control we bring in especially in early-stage categories. Apart from funding the companies, we also provide technical assistance to start-ups,” Pai added.
The venture capital firm has so far seen exits from two portfolio companies.
“We’ve had two exits from our first fund. Out of more than 40 companies, 30 of them have closed their subsequent rounds. We are very clearly focused on value escalation. We avoid unnecessary high valuations. We see good opportunities through exits to new listing exchanges through National Stock Exchange and BSE,” Pai said.
Source: Mint