Mumbai-based Artha Group has announced the launch of its Rs 450 crore winners-only microVC fund—Artha Select Fund (ASF).
Investors backing the opportunity fund include Pune-based Kirloskar Family Office, the family office of former Reliance Capital CIS Madhusudan Kela, Abhinav Sinha (MD, British International Investment), Narendra Karnavat of CA firm Karnavat and Co, Jashvant Raval of JCR and Co, Mumbai-based listed firm SAT Industries, Varun Bansal of Jayashree Polymers, Rajiv Lakhotia of Shree Karni Fabcom, and several others.
A member of the investment committee (IC) at Artha Venture Fund, Abhinav Sinha will also be joining the IC at ASF.
As per the official release, ASF will back category-winning startups from Artha’s portfolio in their follow-on rounds. The fund will commit up to Rs 20 crore in the Series B round and an additional Rs 20 crore in the Series C round in startups where Artha is already an investor. ASF will back 12-14 startups through this vehicle.
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ASF raised its first Rs 100 crore in less than three weeks as current LPs (Limited Partners) chose to double down on the winners of Artha Venture Fund (‘AVF’)—an early-stage microVC fund. The established winners of AVF include LenDenClub, Agnikul, Everest Fleet, HobSpace, InstaAstro, KarmaLife, etc.
Artha announced the final close of AVF in June 2021 at over Rs 225 crore, exceeding its target corpus of Rs 200 crore. The fund has made 27 investments so far, with a combined valuation of Rs 3,600+ crore.
In December 2021, LenDenClub raised $10 million in a Series A round from Ohm Enterprises (Amal Parikh’s family office), Tuscan Ventures, Som Ventures LLP, QED Innovation Labs, AngelList, cricketer Hardik Pandya, and Shajikumar Devakar (IIFL Wealth).
“Artha led our seed round and doubled down on that investment in the Pre-Series A. In addition, their $1.8 million investment in the Series A round increased the investor’s confidence, aiding us in closing the round quickly,” said Bhavin Patel, CEO, and Founder of LenDenClub—a P2P-lending platform.
LenDenClub claims to have grown 20X since it closed its Series A round, disbursing more than Rs 1,000 crore through its platform in August 2022—the first Indian P2P platform to achieve that milestone.
Artha will announce its first close along with its first investment shortly.
Chris Kolenaty, Head of Private Investments at the Kirloskar Family Office, said,
“We became increasingly comfortable with Anirudh during AVF’s second close and decided to hit go this time. We see him becoming one of India’s top private investors and are excited to collaborate with him!”
Anirudh A Damani, Managing Partner, Artha Select Fund, added, “We are ecstatic with the fantastic response to our winner’s fund. We see early-growth rounds as an amazing investment opportunity to back founders at a critical inflection point in their venture journey. With ASF, we provide our founders with the added firepower to chase sound business metrics like revenues, positive unit economics, and profitability!”
