Avataar Venture Partners launches second fund of $350 million
Avataar Venture Partners, which has backed unicorn software startups such as Amagi, Zenoti and others, has launched its second fund (Fund II) with a corpus of $350 million. Fund II from the business-to-business (B2B) technology-backer comes three years after it launched its first fund worth $300 million and less than two years after it closed a top-up fund worth $100 million to invest in some of its portfolio companies. The second fund is expected to hit a final close of up to $400 million, founder and managing partner Mohan Kumar told ET.
“We usually back 10-15 companies in a fund and make sure we offer all the help. But we can work with only so many companies at a time and that explains the thesis behind a $350 million fund,” Kumar said. “We might go up to $400 million with this fund but not more than that. We will never be a $1 billion fund, because we won’t be able to service it.” Avataar’s second fund has made a first close with just a little over 50% of the total corpus, he added. The final close is expected by March 2023. Avataar is looking to deploy the total corpus from Fund II over the next 30 months.
Kumar, a former partner at Norwest Venture Partners, and Nishant Rao, the former chief operating officer of Chennai-based software as a service (SaaS) firm Freshworks, launched Avataar Venture Partners in 2019. For its first fund, Avataar raised the corpus from HarbourVest, the global fund-of-funds, as its single limited partner or sponsor.
With the second fund, the venture capital firm is expected to continue its pace of investment, backing 10-15 new companies, writing cheques with an average size of $35-$40 million, and focusing on growth-stage companies. It is expected to close three new investments from Fund II by mid-November and is focusing on companies in the B2B-tech enablement space across healthcare, urban mobility, agritech, deep-tech, blockchain and DevOps.
“We are a B2B fund, and Software-as-a-Service SaaS is a large part of it. We ideally come in when a company has $15 million in annual revenues. There are a lot of companies between $5 million and $10 million today who will be in the market to raise funds next year. Until then, the next one year, we see a lot of opportunities in the B2B-tech market, and not SaaS. SaaS will start picking up next year,” Kumar said about the investment opportunity.
Previously, Avataar had in a bulk portfolio deal acquired stakes in six B2B SaaS companies—Appnomic, Capillary, CRMNext, ElasticRun, Manthan, and Zenoti—from Norwest Venture Partners to kick off its fund. On exits, Kumar said that Avataar expects almost seven of its portfolio companies backed from the first fund to file for their public listings in the next 24 months.
“The M&A story in India is still weak today. If we look at over $500 million acquisitions, whether by Indian companies or global majors, it doesn’t exist today. So, you really have to plan for an IPO and we are heavily dependent on it for exits. To go IPO in the Indian market there has to be good unit economics, and there’s a preference for B2B SaaS companies because they do not guzzle that much cash,” Kumar said about exit possibilities.
Avataar’s portfolio company, RateGain Travel Technologies, which provides software for the hospitality industry listed on the Indian bourses in December last year. Around the same time, retail customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, Capillary Technologies, part of Avataar’s portfolio, also filed its draft prospectus. Avataar’s second fund comes at a time when global technology stocks have taken a beating, as markets react to inflationary pressures and high interest rates.
“Overall health of LPs depends on public markets, and that has taken a hit. And they are all evaluating where the market is and will be slow to deploy so they aren’t in a hurry. Hence, for even the existing funds raising out there, there have been a lot of re-ups (or existing LPs participating). So, four of our LPs have signed-up for a re-up for our second fund and we are bringing two new global LPs. For now, we are not creating a structure to take money locally,” said Kumar.
“We usually back 10-15 companies in a fund and make sure we offer all the help. But we can work with only so many companies at a time and that explains the thesis behind a $350 million fund,” Kumar said. “We might go up to $400 million with this fund but not more than that. We will never be a $1 billion fund, because we won’t be able to service it.” Avataar’s second fund has made a first close with just a little over 50% of the total corpus, he added. The final close is expected by March 2023. Avataar is looking to deploy the total corpus from Fund II over the next 30 months.
Kumar, a former partner at Norwest Venture Partners, and Nishant Rao, the former chief operating officer of Chennai-based software as a service (SaaS) firm Freshworks, launched Avataar Venture Partners in 2019. For its first fund, Avataar raised the corpus from HarbourVest, the global fund-of-funds, as its single limited partner or sponsor.
With the second fund, the venture capital firm is expected to continue its pace of investment, backing 10-15 new companies, writing cheques with an average size of $35-$40 million, and focusing on growth-stage companies. It is expected to close three new investments from Fund II by mid-November and is focusing on companies in the B2B-tech enablement space across healthcare, urban mobility, agritech, deep-tech, blockchain and DevOps.
“We are a B2B fund, and Software-as-a-Service SaaS is a large part of it. We ideally come in when a company has $15 million in annual revenues. There are a lot of companies between $5 million and $10 million today who will be in the market to raise funds next year. Until then, the next one year, we see a lot of opportunities in the B2B-tech market, and not SaaS. SaaS will start picking up next year,” Kumar said about the investment opportunity.
Previously, Avataar had in a bulk portfolio deal acquired stakes in six B2B SaaS companies—Appnomic, Capillary, CRMNext, ElasticRun, Manthan, and Zenoti—from Norwest Venture Partners to kick off its fund. On exits, Kumar said that Avataar expects almost seven of its portfolio companies backed from the first fund to file for their public listings in the next 24 months.
“The M&A story in India is still weak today. If we look at over $500 million acquisitions, whether by Indian companies or global majors, it doesn’t exist today. So, you really have to plan for an IPO and we are heavily dependent on it for exits. To go IPO in the Indian market there has to be good unit economics, and there’s a preference for B2B SaaS companies because they do not guzzle that much cash,” Kumar said about exit possibilities.
Avataar’s portfolio company, RateGain Travel Technologies, which provides software for the hospitality industry listed on the Indian bourses in December last year. Around the same time, retail customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, Capillary Technologies, part of Avataar’s portfolio, also filed its draft prospectus. Avataar’s second fund comes at a time when global technology stocks have taken a beating, as markets react to inflationary pressures and high interest rates.
“Overall health of LPs depends on public markets, and that has taken a hit. And they are all evaluating where the market is and will be slow to deploy so they aren’t in a hurry. Hence, for even the existing funds raising out there, there have been a lot of re-ups (or existing LPs participating). So, four of our LPs have signed-up for a re-up for our second fund and we are bringing two new global LPs. For now, we are not creating a structure to take money locally,” said Kumar.
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