CDC commits $10 million to Chiratae
- The fund will focus primarily on early-stage investments with the flexibility to invest at seed and expansion stage
- Chiratae has so far backed Cure.Fit, FirstCry, Bounce, Lenskart and PolicyBazaar, among others
The UK’s publicly-owned impact investor CDC Group has committed $10 million to Chiratae Ventures’ Fund IV, which focuses on highly scalable, tech-enabled companies, as it seeks to increase its presence in India’s tech startup ecosystem.
Chiratae has so far backed Cure.Fit, FirstCry, Bounce, Lenskart and PolicyBazaar, among others. The funds advised by Chiratae Ventures have over $775 million assets under management and over 85 investee companies.
“CDC’s commitment to Chiratae Ventures’ Fund IV is a show of confidence in India’s innovative ecosystem,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman, Chiratae Ventures.
The fund will focus primarily on early-stage investments with the flexibility to invest at seed and expansion stages, backing companies in deep-tech, consumer media, software, fintech and health tech.
“This investment will help generate tangible impact at scale by capitalising on the country’s world-class entrepreneurial potential,” said Srini Nagarajan, MD and head, Asia, CDC.
For CDC, which has over the years supported many private equity and venture capital funds operating in India, the investment in Chiratae’s fund is part of a strategy to increase its investments in India’s rapidly growing technology startup ecosystem.
With covid-19 further accelerating the adoption of digital technologies, the development finance institution is expected to scale up its investments in this space. The CDC strategy focuses not just on backing startups through VC funds, but also investing alongside the funds (so-called co-investments), besides making direct investments into startups.
It has so far committed about $60 million across six funds in India—pi ventures, Stellaris, Pravega, Chiratae, Omnivore and Ankur Capital.
As a development finance institution, CDC focuses on investing in VC funds which partner with businesses using disruptive technologies to deliver services for mass consumption at reduced costs of products and services.
Its direct investment portfolio includes three investments at present, across which CDC has committed $70 million. The investments include Bigbasket, iMerit and Indifi. It has so far made one tech co-investment involving logistics platform Loadshare.
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