Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Mumbai-based venture capital firm Iron Pillar has announced the final close of its maiden ₹660 crore ($90 million) fund.

Around 65% of the fund was raised from overseas investors, while the rest came from India. Majority of the overseas funds were raised from US entities, followed by a diversified group of investors from Europe, the Middle East, Singapore, and China.

Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution, is the largest investor for the fund. Among Indian investors, IIFL and SIDBI‘s India Inspiration Fund were the largest domestic limited partners, who came in during the first close of the fund.

In May 2017, Iron Pillar had announced the first close of its maiden fund at $20 million, with investments from IIFL and SIDBI.

Iron Pillar is an India-focused venture growth investor specialising in mid-stage technology companies. It was founded by Anand Prasanna, a former director of Morgan Creek, along with Sameer Nath, a former Citigroup India investment banking head, and Mohanjit Jolly, a former DFJ India head.

The firm invests in consumer and enterprise tech sectors focusing on series B, C, and D rounds.

Talking about the investments from the fund, Sameer Nath, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar, said, “Our’s will be a concentrated portfolio of about 9 to 10 deals, so that the bar is very high in terms of capital deployment. We are talking of $5-10 million ticket sizes.”

Some of the notable investments by Iron Pillar in the Indian startup ecosystem include Servify, NowFloats, BlueStone, and Snapdeal.

Earlier in August 2018, Servify raised ₹106 crores in a series B round led by Iron Pillar.

In the last couple of months, there have been a number of India focused venture funds raising money, to bolster the Indian startup ecosystem.

Recently, Blume Ventures marked the first close of its third fund at ₹295 crores, targetting a corpus of ₹590 crores.

Last month, pi Ventures closed its first fund at ₹225 crores, exceeding its target corpus of ₹195 crores.

Earlier in July 2018, Artha Venture Fund marked the first close of its maiden fund at ₹40 crores. Inventus Capital announced the first close of its third fund at ₹200 crores. Also, CIIE’s Bharat Innovation Fund marked its first close of ₹690 crore fund.

By Varun

Startups | Books | Ideas

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