Separator

Early-stage VC firm Multiply Ventures raises Rs 260 crore

Separator
Early-stage venture capital firm Multiply Ventures has raised Rs 260 crore towards the final close of its maiden fund.

Most of the investors in the fund are Indian family offices and digital-first entrepreneurs. Around 95% of the investors are from India, it said in a statement.

“Multiply Ventures has invested in 15 companies to date and plans to invest in 8-10 more startups over the next 12 months,” the VC firm said.

Some of its portfolio companies include Nova Benefits, upswing, Freed, and Bharat X in fintech; Nutty Yogi and Iluvia in the sustainable consumer space; Jovian and Clever Harvey in ed-tech, and OneCare and Being in health.

The fund will target investments in consumer tech with a focus on early-stage deals across four core sectors - fintech, edtech, retail, and health, it said.

Multiply was founded by Raveen Sastry, Sanjay Ramakrishnan and Bhushan Patil, former executives at Myntra, Flipkart, and Paytm, respectively.

“We are thesis-driven in our investment and the broad thesis is that India will see the emergence of trusted brands that will improve access to quality education, transparent financial services, affordable healthcare and authentic retail experiences,” said Ramakrishnan, Partner at Multiply, said. “Technology will be a unifying catalyst across all sectors. We have a sub-thesis for each of the four sectors. The thesis is our governing framework and keeps evolving.”

Multiply Ventures will invest very early, and ideally, be the first institutional investor, and in most cases lead the round, it said.

“While the digital ecosystem has evolved locally, many innovations across sectors will come from early-stage startups which will need support beyond the capital. The right selection, getting in early, and building for larger consumer segments have proven to get the best impact and investment returns for us and we will continue to build on this,” said Patil, Partner at Multiply, said.

The fundraising comes at a time when liquidity has been drying up globally and domestic institutional and high net-worth investors are now stepping up to match global peers.

“Our average first cheque is around Rs 4 crore, and we will invest up to Rs 20 crore in efficiently run business till Series A,” said Sastry, Partner at Multiply Ventures.