Pentathlon Ventures launches Rs 450 Cr fund to invest in B2B SaaS startups

Pentathlon Ventures, an early-stage B2B SaaS-focused venture capital firm, has launched its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 450 crore.

The fund will be used to invest in 25 B2B SaaS (software-as-a-service) startups, said the firm in a release.

Pentathlon Ventures hopes to support breakthrough solutions in enterprise digital transformation, ecommerce enablement, fintech, vertical SaaS, applied AI, sustainable tech, and healthtech, in the B2B SaaS space.

For Fund II, the venture is raising capital from a mix of domestic and global limited partners, encompassing business leaders, corporate firms, and institutions.

“The revenue coming from India-based B2B startups are expected to grow 25X in the next eight years. With an impressive 50% faster time to revenue, better revenue predictability, and solid gross margins ranging between 70% and 80%, it presents extraordinary prospects of building sustainable businesses," said Sandeep Chawda, Managing Partner, Pentathlon Ventures.

"In addition to these aspects, with our core expertise being in this space, early-stage B2B SaaS companies built from India continue to be our primary investment thesis. The success of our investments from Fund I further strengthens our commitment to this strategy,” he added.

Founded in 2020 by a team of entrepreneurs and industry veterans, the Pune-based fund will continue to focus on early-stage B2B SaaS startups.

Industry veterans Gireendra Kasmalkar (Founder, Ideas to Impacts); Sandeep Chawda (former MD, Globant India); Madhukar Bhatia (Co-founder, Sapience Analytics); Saurabh Lahoti (who has run three early-stage funds in the past); Hemant Joshi (Co-founder, Sapience Analytics); and Shashank Deshpande (Co-founder, Clarice Technologies) are the partners in Pentathlon Ventures.

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In August 2021, the VC firm closed its first fund, which had secured investments totalling Rs 76 crore. The fund was oversubscribed.

Through this fund, the firm has invested in 23 startups. It claims to have had successful exits and follow-on investments. The fund’s portfolio companies include DeepTek, Rezolve AI, Spyne, Dista,  TurboHire and ShopSe.

“Couple of decades back, India was known for off-shore IT services. Later, B2C startups gained prominence because of India’s population/consumption story. Today, Indian B2B startups are on their way to become global leaders within this decade," said Gireendra Kasmalkar, Managing Partner, Pentathlon Ventures.

"Add to this the tailwinds from the global focus moving to India. We are truly on the cusp of a huge virtuous cycle,” he added.