IvyCap Ventures Secures Rs.1,608 Crore in First Close of Third Fund

IvyCap Ventures has mopped up Rs. 1,608 crore ($214 million) from institutional investors in the first close of its third fund."Banks, insurance companies, mutual funds,family officesand government institutions have come on board the fund", an IvyCap executive said. State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, and HDFC Life are among the sponsors of the Mumbai based fund, said people in the know. This is the first time that Indian family offices have contributed to the fund. IvyCap is aiming to take the size of the fund which will back early stage firms to as much as Rs. 2,500 crore, making it one of the largest pools of domestic rupee capital. It will

also add to the growing set of venture capital (VC) funds that are raising money from Indian limited partners, or sponsors.

IvvCap has so far backed startups such as beauty products e-tailer Purplle, jewellery e-Commerce platform Bluestone, and online clothing brand Bewakoof. "As we grow in size, our competitive landscape changes substantially. Now we are competing with Sequoia Capital, Accel, and others. These are funds that come with substantial fund sizes, and you don't want to lose out on deals only because somebody thinks that others can provide them with a larger follow on capital", Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner of IvyCap, told. Talking about the early signs of a slowdown in funding and sobering of valuations, he said, “We are already seeing realistic expectations on valuations in the minds of entrepreneurs given the recent corrections in the market. This will help us make investments at the right entry levels”. Founded in 2011, IvyCap has built a venture capital model around the global IIT alumni ecosystem. Along with Gupta, Ashish Wadhwani, Vishal Gauri and Anju Gupta are the other members of the founding team. The firm has several IIT directors onboard as advisors to startups in which the fund invests.