Kenro Capital, an investment firm focused on late-stage secondary deals in India and Southeast Asia, is in the final stages of raising a $120-150 million fund from global and domestic investors, as demand for liquidity in private markets gathers pace.
"We have already done our first closing with blue-chip global institutional investors in October last year and are currently in talks to selectively include domestic capital in our final closing," said Norbert Fernandes, co-founding partner at the fund.
“We are in active discussions with institutions, family offices, HNIs and UHNIs for the domestic sleeve and expect to make the final close over the next four to six months.”
Secondary investing has gained momentum in India as both global and domestic investors look to capitalize on the country's expanding private market. The trend is being driven by venture capital and private equity funds nearing the end of their investment life cycles and seeking liquidity to return capital to investors.
The asset class also offers investors exposure to scaled, profitable businesses at relatively attractive valuations while delivering strong returns.
Launched in November 2024 by former TR Capital and Peak XV executives Fernandes and Piyush Gupta, Kenro was set up to provide liquidity to early-stage investors in startups, as companies increasingly stay private for longer and traditional exit avenues remain limited.
Growing market
Mint has previously reported that global investment firms including HarbourVest, Pantheon Ventures and Schroders Capital plan to step up investments in secondary transactions or back dedicated India-focused funds.
Over the past two years, several domestic managers have also entered the space. Neo Asset Management plans to raise a ₹2,000 crore secondaries fund, while 360 One Asset Management has announced a ₹5,000 crore corpus.
Other entrants include Oister Group and Tribe Capital Management's joint $500 million secondary fund, as well as PixelSky, which is targeting a ₹400 crore fund.
Kenro's strategy
"Founder-built companies have stronger business models and better financial profiles than before, alongside huge demand for exit liquidity from early-stage investors," Gupta said.
With new-age businesses remaining private longer than ever before, and most PE/VC funds raised in India over the past two decades approaching maturity, secondary transactions are rapidly emerging as the missing piece in providing timely liquidity to investors, he added.
Kenro Capital has already executed more than $115 million in secondary transactions, including co-investments, and expects to double that over the next 6-12 months.
Its investments include education services provider K12 Techno Services, jewellery brand Giva, and fintech company Pine Labs, which went public last year.
The firm's investment pipeline spans financial services and consumer businesses, while it also sees opportunities in healthcare, education and enterprise technology.
"These are sectors that have historically attracted sizeable primary capital and, therefore, have a large cohort of scaled businesses that fit our investment criteria," Fernandes said.
The firm typically backs companies that are market leaders or have differentiated offerings, are profitable or close to profitability, have strong corporate governance standards, and require a liquidity event.
"While we typically target an average ticket size of about $10-20 million, there is flexibility to cut larger cheques through co-investments with our large LPs," Fernandes said.
He added that Kenro generally prefers minority investments in companies that have a two-to-three-year line of sight to a public listing.
Kenro is also expanding its investment team as deal opportunities continue to accelerate. "Our investment pipeline is currently outpacing our ability to execute," Gupta said.
While the firm is taking a calibrated approach to hiring, it has recently onboarded one associate vice-president and plans to add another two to three investment professionals over the coming months.