India-based Artha Venture Fund hits final close of debut fund at $30m

Artha Venture Fund, an India-based firm focused on early-stage startups, has announced the final close of its first fund at 2.2 billion rupees (US$30.1 million).

Anirudh Damani, managing partner at Artha Venture Fund / Photo credit: Artha Venture Fund

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has invested in the debut fund, along with family offices, non-resident Indians, high-net-worth individuals, super angel investors, and over 20 listed companies, among others.

Artha Venture Fund will invest in the business-to-business, business-to-customer, and direct-to-customer sectors. It will also look for investment opportunities in D2C enablers across startups in their seed, pre-series A, and series A stages.

Artha said it will set aside 65% of the corpus from the debut fund for follow-on rounds in companies and will make over 10 to 12 seed investments a year.

“We will continue to scout for seed-plus stage deals in our preferred investment themes of D2C, D2C enablers, and B2B. Another sleeping giant that has piqued our interest in the last 12 months is the gaming sector, especially for the masses,” said Anirudh Damani, managing partner at Artha Venture Fund.

The VC firm has invested in startups including spacetech firm Agnikul, peer-to-peer lender LenDenClub, and children-focused mobility platform PiggyRide, among others. Artha Venture Fund has six deals in the pipeline for the next few months and plans to support 40 accelerator-stage investments through small checks written from this fund.

In June 2019, the firm announced the second close of its maiden fund at 1 billion rupees (US$13.7 million) to invest in areas such as logistics and fintech as well as payment gateways and apps.

Currency converted from Indian rupees to US dollar: US$1 = 73.09 rupees.