Bengaluru: Anup Jain and Rajeev Suri, former managing partners of Orios Venture Partners, have launched a $75 million fund to back a mix of early and late-stage startups in fintech, climate & sustainability and consumer-driven B2C startups under their new investment vehicle – BlueGreen Ventures.
“The fund size can increase up to $100 million including the green shoe option,” Jain said in an interview with Mint. The new fund is backed by global CEOs and CXOs from Fortune 500 companies alongside Indian startup entrepreneurs, he added without disclosing names. The fund has received nearly 4/5th of its commitments from domestic investors.
BlueGreen Ventures will focus on early-stage companies ranging from seed to Series A funding rounds with an average cheque size of ₹7 crore-12 crore and aiming to lead every round. Within the consumer-driven B2C business, it will focus on startups that cater to solving post-covid consumption shifts including niche sectors such as pet care and edtech companies that work on upskilling and reskilling.
While about 60% of the fund will be dedicated to early-stage startups, the remaining will go towards supporting mature companies that will list in the public within four to five years through secondary transactions. The average cheque size may range from ₹20 crore-30 crore.
“There are likely to be about 18 to 20 companies in the early stage and 5-7 mature companies,” Jain said, adding that there is also a significant appetite for follow-on rounds in the first category.
Hands-on approach
The dual strategy of the fund, which has a nine-year-tenure, will enable it to balance risk and mitigate liquidity challenges by leveraging the maturity of some startups in the ecosystem today. Broadly, BlueGreen Ventures will function as an operator-led institutional firm that will work closely with founders along with investing in them.
“We will take an active hands-on approach, which also means we will be limited by the number of companies we can hold in our portfolio at any point in time. There are also other considerations to be made on the stages we want to enter and the kind of help we will be able to offer as we want to be able to help the people we are backing without them having to dilute too much,” co-founder Suri said, explaining why they haven’t opted for a larger fund.
Suri has been a part of the Indian startup ecosystem for more than a decade and has worn many hats including founding a tech startup. In his most recent role as managing partner of Orios Venture Partners, he oversaw investments in fintech wealth, insure-tech and gaming. His portfolio companies included Zupee, Wright, Density, Bimaplan and Wishup.
Jain has worked in large corporations including Procter & Gamble, Whirlpool, Yum Brands and Bata. Last year, he stepped down as managing partner in Orios, where he mentored early and late-stage companies. His portfolio startups included Hypd, Varaha, BatterySmart, Nxtwave, Vedantu, CarDekho and Mobikwik. Ixigo, one of his portfolio companies, went public in June.
Several fund managers have stepped down in recent times to start their own ventures, looking to take advantage of niche opportunities that emerge from the proliferation of startups. Examples include Nexus’ Sameer Brij Verma, Peak XV’s Piyush Gupta, Lightspeed’s Vaibhav Agrawal, and Premji Invest’s Atul Gupta, according to media reports.
