IvyCap Fund 2 raises Rs 300 cr, set to invest in 25-30 companies in next two years

Venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures has raised the first tranche of Rs 300 crore in its Rs 600-crore IvyCap Fund 2, which was launched last October. The fund saw the participation of five of the 15 existing institutional investors of IvyCap.

Vikram Gupta, Founder, IvyCap Ventures said,

We will channelise 10 percent of the Rs 600-crore fund into IvyCap startup platform, IvyCap Ventures Initiative (www.ivycamp.in), where we make seed investment of upto Rs one crore per startup. As a part of the IvyCap Ventures Initiative, we will invest in 25-30 startups in the next two years, in sectors like healthtech, IoT, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, edtech and agritech.”

Last December, IvyCamp had partnered with Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), a business incubator of IIT Bombay. The objective was to leverage the IvyCamp Platform to connect and create value for entrepreneurs and innovators across the student and alumni community. Currently, the platform has a 1,000 startups on it.

Vikram added that 90 percent of the funds will go into Series A and B investments in 12 to 13 companies in the next two years. The fund is likely to be completed by September this year.

First round of fund

IvyCap has launched the first fund of Rs 240 crore in 2012 and completed all the investments in 10 companies, including eShakti, Purplle, Sokrati, Clovia, Bluestone, Leixir Dental Lab, by June last year . The Alumni Trust Arm of IvyCap Ventures, according to Vikram, will remain the anchor investor in every fund. The trust has invested Rs 50 crore in the first fund and Rs 120 crore in the second. The trust comprises 200 alumni from IITs and IIMs from across India.

A glimpse at the funding

This February, IvyCap invested Rs 28 crore in Mumbai-based home services startup Taskbob in a Series-A round, with participation from existing investors Orios and Mayfield. In March, it invested Rs one crore in mobile payment FTCash in pre-Series A funding.

In January last year, digital advertising startup Sokrati raised Series-B funding from IvyCap Ventures and existing investor Inventus Capital. Ratan Tata-backed Bluestone.com raised Rs 100 crore from Accel Partners, Ivy Capital and Dragoneer, with participation from  Kalaari Capital and Saama Capital.

Founded by Vikram, ex-COO of India Venture Advisors, IvyCap Ventures invests in early and growth-stage startups that are founded by entrepreneurs mainly from IITs and IIMs. It has a fund management team of 10 people. IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited is the key sponsor.

Going forward, IvyCap Ventures will raise funds from international markets like Japan, HongKong, Singapore and Europe.