Dharana Capital raises $250M for second India-focused growth fund
The VC firm, which has invested in companies including LAT Aerospace and Petpooja, is looking to invest in tech and consumer businesses in the country.
Urban Company-backer Dharana Capital has raised $250 million for its second growth fund, becoming the latest venture capital firm to stock up on dry powder.
The VC company plans to invest in technology and consumer businesses in India, taking a long-term approach with its portfolio companies.
Dharana’s investors in the new fund include US university endowments, health systems, and non-profits.
“At Dharana, our vision is to back missionary founders building large, standalone, durable listed businesses. We believe India’s listed tech market cap will grow multi-fold over the next decade as more new-age enterprises go public. Our goal is to partner with a select few and play a meaningful role in this value creation,” said Vamsi Duvvuri, Founder and Managing Partner of Dharana Capital, in a statement.
With the new fund, the company’s assets under management total $450 million. Its portfolio companies include Deepinder Goyal’s aviation startup LAT Aerospace, cloud-based restaurant management platform Petpooja, and accounting software firm Vyapar. These companies were part of Dharana Capital’s first fund which was launched with a target corpus of $160 million. THe VC firm has also invested in food-tech major Zomato and home services platform Urban Company—both of which have gone public.
Dharana Capital is the latest venture capital firm to raise fresh capital to invest in India’s startup ecosystem. A string of VC firms, including Accel, Blume Ventures, A91 Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners, raised fresh funds last year.
Edited by Swetha Kannan