Former BharatPe COO launches Rs 120 Cr maiden VC fund

Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl, the former chief operating officer (COO) of BharatPe, has launched Eternal Capital, his maiden venture capital fund, with a target to raise Rs 120 crore.

Eternal Capital also has the green shoe option of Rs 120 crore, taking the potential size of the fund to Rs 240 crore. Established in October 2023, the VC fund aims to be sector agnostic and plans to invest in 40 startups at the seed to pre-series A stages over the next three years.

A statement from Eternal Capital said it has already received commitments from other startup founders and CXOs such as Suhail Sameer, former CEO of BharatPe; Deep Kalra, founder of MakeMyTrip; Tarun Mathur, co-founder of PolicyBazaar; Vikas Gupta, CEO of VLCC; Adarsh Menon, President of Zoomcar; Nalin Negi, CEO of BharatPe; Sameer Chugh, Founder, Mosambee; and Saurabh Vashishtha, Kunal Suri, and Amit Bagaria, Founders, Simsim.

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On the launch of the fund, Eternal Capital Founder Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl said, “Globally, operator-led funds have outperformed more traditional peers due to their ability to connect easily, engage deeply, and add incremental value to the founders and the ventures they back. Our approach to date has been no different making us not only a ‘partner of first choice’ for founders but also, the preferred co-investment partner for other funds.”

Bahl, who stepped down as the COO of BharatPe in August last year, has experience working with other startups and corporates such as RoadZen, Airtel Payments Bank, Paytm, and Fortis Healthcare. He is also an angel investor with some of the startups in his portfolio including Stupa Sports Analytics, BASIC Home Loan, ApniBus, Volt Money, DrinkPrime, AdmitKard, GenWise, VAMA, and Fleek.

The statement said that Eternal Capital will take a different approach to investment and also will not go by the conventional 2/20 VC model by providing a 50% discount. Under this model, a VC fund typically takes 2 percent as management fees and 20 percent is the performance amount.