India, SEA-focused VC Avatar Ventures raises $100m in final close of new fund

India VC firm Avataar Capital Management has announced the final close of US$100 million for its Opportunities Fund from undisclosed institutional funds across Europe and the US.

Nishant Rao, founding partner at Avataar Ventures / Photo credit: Avataar Ventures

Avataar focuses on business-to-business and software-as-a-service (SaaS) growth-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia. It invests between US$10 million to US$30 million in startups that have a annual recurring revenue of at least US$15 million.

Launched in September 2019, the firm was founded by Nishant Rao, former global chief operating officer at Freshworks, and Mohan Kumar, who led Norwest Venture Partners in India. Avataar had then  launched a US$300 million venture fund.

The new fund will be used to invest in Avataar’s existing portfolio of companies as well as new investments. The VC firm said it has also made three new undisclosed investments and is expanding its team in the US by hiring two senior executives.

“Partnering closely with our entrepreneurs, our interventions on unit economics have helped three new portfolio businesses hit profitability,” said Avataar managing partner Mohan Kumar. “Yet for others, we have focused more on helping fine-tune their growth engines.”

The fund’s portfolio includes companies like Zenoti, Capillary Technologies, ElasticRun, and CRMNext, among others.

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Avataar recently led a series C round for automated communication platform SenseHQ and a series B round for RateGain, a travel and hotel software company. Investors including Accel and Google Ventures participated in the SenseHQ fundraise while TA Associates backed RateGain.