Capria Ventures to raise $100 million for India Fund III

Global South specialist venture capital firm Capria Ventures has launched its $100-million (Rs 830 crore approximately) Capria India Fund III, said a top executive. The fund, structured as a master-feeder investment, will see participation from both Indian and global investors.

It has also accounted for a greenshoe option of up to $125 million. 

The fund will invest in 25-30 startups across seed and pre-Series A rounds, with the average cheque size ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. It will back businesses aimed at growing the Indian middle class across HRtech, fintech, SaaS, and climate sectors. Capria will also evaluate investments in the manufacturing, agritech, and business-to-business sectors.

The fund will continue to look at the use of applied GenAI in its portfolio companies. 

With the new fund, Capria plans to set aside 25% of the fund for follow-on investments in portfolio companies from its previous funds to tap into late-stage opportunities and give earlier returns to its Limited Partners (LPs). 

“Not only will we invest in new companies, we will also invest in late-stage companies from our predecessor funds to return capital at high IRRs (Internal Rate of Return). India has faced an issue of giving early exits, even though the TVPIs (Total Value to Paid-In capital)  have been healthy. Our strong attempt will be to address that, now that we have a strong portfolio from previous funds,” Surya Mantha, Managing Partner at Capria Ventures, told YourStory.

In October 2024, Capria had raised Rs 153 crore (approximately $19 million) for the India Opportunity Fund to invest in breakout portfolio companies from Fund I and II. 

The fund, with a master-feeder structure, has both Indian and foreign LPs, with domestic capital likely to make up for 60% of the contribution, added Mantha. 

“We are getting good interest from our existing investor base as well as new investors. It is also indicative of the strong interest in India and the opportunities here over the next decade, which is quite gratifying,” said Mantha. He added that the VC firm was looking at the first close of the new fund by March 2025. 

SIDBI was an anchor investor in Capria’s previous fund, apart from institutional LPs like the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation as well as family offices like Aarin Capital and Bill Gates’ family office. 

“Given the robust public activity in terms of IPOs, there is a desire to participate early on in the value chain in private assets from Indian family offices and HNIs. This market has deepened considerably. There is also keen interest from overseas investors including Japan, Singapore and GCC, apart from the US markets,” Mantha told YourStory. 

Capria currently has Rs 670 crore in assets under management (AUM) as part of its three India funds which have invested in a portfolio of over 40 startups. In 2023, Indian early-stage technology fund Unitus Ventures combined with its US-based affiliate arm, Capria Ventures, to form a multi-stage portfolio entity.

In April this year, Capria recorded a full-cash exit from the work-fulfilment platform Awign, which was acquired by Japanese conglomerate, Mynavi Corporation. The firm has also invested in agritech company Agrizy from its Global South Fund II in 2024. Other portfolio companies of Capria include the workforce management platform Betterplace, diagnostics platform 5C Network, and enterprise fintech platform SuperMoney.