Early stage investment firm AdvantEdge Founders launch AdvantEdge Founders Fund II

AdvantEdge Founders Fund II has already received commitments of Rs 100 crore from its existing Fund I anchor Limited Partners (LPs), and is expected to secure additional commitments of Rs 200 crore.

Early stage consumer technology venture capital fund AdvantEdge Founders has announced the launch of AdvantEdge Founders Fund II - a mobility first transformation fund based in India.

The fund is expected to target the growing mobility opportunities available in the Indian startup ecosystem. It will focus on investing in early-stage startups across shared mobility, smart cars, digital auto and logistics domain.

AdvantEdge does early-stage seed investments, and runs a highly-successful mentor building programme at its ‘Founders Adda’ Incubator in the NCR region.

AdvantEdge Founders Fund II has already received commitments of Rs 100 crore from its existing Fund I anchor Limited Partners (LPs), and is expected to secure additional commitments of Rs 200 crore.

"We spent three years in deploying Fund I across the consumer tech space with a focus on shared mobility. We recognised key mobility trends very clearly, identified the right opportunities including Shuttl, Rapido and Chalo, and worked closely with the founding teams to achieve leadership positions," said Kunal Khattar, Mangaing Partner, AdvantEdge Founders.

He added that they are looking to bring on board leading players in the auto mobility ecosystem including OEMs, component manufacturers, mobility solution providers and aftermarket auto distributors as LP’s in this sector-focused fund.

"We promise them key insights into technologies and startups disrupting their domain and first mover access to strategic M&A opportunities at the corporate level," said Khattar.

This mobility-first transformation fund will support its portfolio companies by leveraging the domain knowledge of its team, said a release.

AdvantEdge will duplicate its successful strategy from the earlier fund into Fund II by expanding the mobility space to include technology opportunities in smart, electric and autonomous cars, aftermarket parts and services, auto eCommerce and logistics, warehousing, transportation and distribution.

“I have been very impressed with the AdvantEdge team and its ability to identify opportunities early and make them winners," said Laksh Vaaman Sehgal, Vice Chairman of Samvardhana Motherson Group, an anchor LP in both Fund I and II.

“Motherson has gained tremendous insights into the shared mobility space by working with many of the portfolio companies, and I am now looking for disruptive technologies in the smart and connected car space, which can be potential areas for us to collaborate on to give the group a competitive advantage in our areas of operations,” he added.