[Funding alert] Ankur Capital raises Rs 330 Cr for Fund II

Ankur Capital, an early stage venture capital firm which has got under its portfolio startups such as CropIn and Niramai, has received more than Rs 330 crore for its second fund from both domestic and overseas investors.

The Fund II of Ankur Capital was launched in January 2020, and the Rs 330 crore raised is an intermediate round with commitments from John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), and National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD).

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Ankur Capital expects to close the final round in a couple of months and the quantum raised is likely to exceed Rs 330 crore. This VC fund launched its operations in 2014, and is founded by Ritu Verma and Rema Subramanian.

Ritu Verma, Cofounder and Managing Partner at Ankur Capital, said,

“India is in a unique position to build companies for the next billion users (NBU) that are also globally relevant. We are witnessing a distinct set of companies that are using India’s large and diverse markets to test products before launching abroad. As with Fund I, we are happy to accelerate this trend with Fund II.”

In Fund 1, Ankur Capital invested in 14 startups with focus largely on the agritech and healthtech segments. With Fund II, it is looking to invest in 16 to 18 startups – it has already invested in four startups – with cheque sizes in the range of $0.5 million to $5 million.

According Ritu, Ankur Capital will strive to invest in startups that are leveraging disruptive technology to solve for the challenges of the billion plus population. Fund II will focus on areas such as agritech, healthtech, fintech, edtech, local language technologies and deep tech.

Manish Diwan, Head - Strategy Partnership & Entrepreneurship Development at BIRAC, said, “BIRAC is pleased to partner with Ankur Capital under its Fund of Funds scheme - AcE - to support biotech innovations. We look forward to venture funds like AcE Fund Partner - Ankur Capital and encourage private equity mobilisation into the biotech innovation ecosystem. This will benefit the rapidly expanding pipeline of biotech startups who develop technology led innovative products to address unmet needs for India and the world.”