Early-stage fund Ankur Capital makes first close of its second fund at Rs 240 Cr
With the first close of the fund, Ankur Capital is looking to go deeper with its investments and support companies from Rs 3 crore to Rs 35 crore.
Early-stage venture capital fund has announced the first close of its second fund Ankur Capital Fund II (ACF II) at Rs 240 crore. The fund expects to reach its target close of Rs 350 crore later this year.
ACF-II saw participation from CDC Group Plc, the UK’s first impact investor and development finance institution and other international and domestic institutional investors as well as participation from existing LPs, The Dutch Good Growth Fund, and SIDBI, which is investing out of its Fund of Funds Startup programme.
Ritu Verma, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Ankur Capital, said,
“At Ankur, our investing philosophy has always been to support entrepreneurs who are building technology led solutions for the mass markets. We are thankful to our backers to help us make a difference at the ground level”.
Founded in 2014 by Penn/INSEAD alum Ritu Verma and ex-COO of Zee e-learning Rema Subramanian, Ankur Capital’s first fund invested across 14 companies covering sectors across agritech, food, healthcare and vernacular technologies. Some of the companies include , , Healthsutra, ERC, and StringBio.
L-R: Rema Subramanian, Krishnan Neelkantan, Ritu Verma
Rema Subramanian, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Ankur Capital, added,
“Ankur is looking to go deeper with its investments and will support companies from Rs 3 crore to Rs 35 crore.”
The second fund was launched in early 2019 and has also on-boarded Krishnan Neelakantan, former Head of CLSA India Research as a partner. It will continue to leverage its expertise and knowledge in the agritech, food, vernacular, and health space but will also expand into sectors such as fintech and edtech. The fund expects to make 15-18 investments and will look to deploy in six to eight companies in this coming year.
CDC has been investing in Indian funds for over 30 years. Alongside its capital, CDC partners with funds and businesses that work to create development impact across multiple sectors. Working closely with Ankur Capital, CDC will play a key role in advancing the fund’s approach to environmental and social practices, both at the fund and portfolio level. CDC will also help strengthen the network of portfolio advisers and build further capacity in portfolio companies.
Sara Taylor, Director and Head of Catalyst Funds, Funds and Capital Partnerships, CDC, said,
“Supporting the first close of ACF-II goes to the heart of how we use our capital at CDC. The companies that Ankur’s Fund will support are at the forefront of addressing development impact challenges using new technologies in India.”
