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Trifecta Capital has announced the first close of its late-stage venture capital fund — Trifecta Leaders Fund – I — with commitments of over Rs 1,000 crore ($ 130 million).

Trifecta Leaders Fund – I, will invest in a targeted set of category leaders, selected predominantly from Trifecta Capital’s portfolio across its Venture Debt Funds where the firm has proprietary knowledge of the businesses as well as deep relationships with founders and investors. “The fund will invest Rs 100-200 crore ($ 15–30 million) each in around 10-12 companies for minority stakes, through a combination of primary and secondary positions.

The Fund was launched three months ago and has a target corpus of Rs 1,500 Crores ($ 200 million). Trifecta in a statement said that the first close has seen strong participation from domestic investors including large corporates, insurance companies, marquee family offices, UHNIs, and entrepreneurs. Existing investors of Trifecta Capital’s Venture Debt Funds have also made significant investments in this Fund. For the balance of Rs 500 crores ($ 70 million), the firm is in discussions with several domestic and global institutional investors.

The fund, Trifecta said, is filling a structural gap in the late-stage VC ecosystem in India, and in addition to primary infusions, will cater to the unmet needs of late-stage companies by providing off-cycle liquidity to early investors, angels, current and former employees including consolidation of equity cap tables. 

Rahul Khanna, Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital, said, 

“Through this new fund, we aim to provide investors access to the value creation opportunity in the last leg of private to public journey of tech companies. With strong institutional investor interest in India internet, we expect listings of several large well known startups, and creation of liquidity for existing investors as these companies tap the public markets for their longer term financing needs. We believe that Trifecta Leaders Fund-I is an attractive opportunity for investors who have so far been unable to access these great companies since they are predominantly funded by offshore VC and PE funds.”

Trifecta is also building a team for the execution of this late-stage equity investing strategy. It has already onboarded Lavanya Ashok as Partner (ex-MD Goldman Sachs, Principal Investment Area) and Surbhi Garg as a VP (previously at Reliance Jio Strategic Investments), and is in the process of augmenting the team with strong private and public markets investing expertise.

The fund has also set up an advisory board comprising global tech experts who will support portfolio companies as they navigate their path to liquidity.

With a term of only five years, Trifecta Capital believes this fund provides a unique investment opportunity for investors, both domestic and offshore, to partner with India’s new economy category leaders that are already executing at scale, and will continue to grow significantly over this decade. 

Founded by Rahul Khanna and Nilesh Kothari in 2014, Trifecta Capital focuses on market leaders and category creators spanning across domains like B2B, Consumer Services, Consumer brands, ecommerce, Mobility, EdTech, AgriTech, FinTech and Healthcare.

Trifecta Capital, across its two funds, has invested in over 75 companies and its portfolio now comprises 20 unicorns and soonicorns including Big Basket, Pharmeasy, Cars24, Vedantu, Infra.Market, ShareChat, DailyHunt, UrbanCompany, CarDekho, Blackbuck, Ninjacart, NoBroker, Kreditbee, Dehaat, Turtlemint, Livspace, Mobikwik, Ixigo and BharatPe amongst several others.