Kae Capital, a venture capital firm in India, announced Friday that it has closed its Fund III, raising INR 767 Cr ($96 million).
Some of the leading international institutional investors who have backed this fund are Old Mutual Wealth, Velo Partners, and Finext, while some of the Indian investors are HDFC Holdings and SIDBI, Kae Capital said in a statement.
Marquee founders backing this fund are Rajesh Yabaji (Blackbuck), Ashish Hemrajani (BookMyShow), Nitish Mittersain (Nazara), Srikanth Velamakanni (Fractal Analytics), Deep Kalra (MakeMyTrip), and Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter), among others.
Additionally, the family offices of Kris Gopalakrishnan (Pratithi), Shashi Kiran Shetty (All Cargo), Sunil Kant Munjal (Hero Enterprise), SRF Family Office, Hemendra Kothari (DSP), Taparia Family Office, and Shashank Singh (Apax) have also backed this fund.
Like all the previous funds, Fund III was oversubscribed as well.
Kae Capital is targeting to invest in 25 companies through this fund and will look at sectors like business to business (B2B) commerce, Consumer tech, SaaS, Fintech, D2C etc.
Kae Capital has been investing in India for more than a decade now. It is a sector-agnostic fund that invests in pre-seed to pre-series A stages of a company’s lifecycle.
Typical initial cheque sizes range between $1 million to $3 million. Kae has been the first institutional investor in many leading companies, including Tata 1MG, Zetwerk, Porter, Healthkart, Wysa, Fynd etc.
Kae Capital has invested in 79 startups, with a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 bn and has made 14 exits.
“We are delighted to announce the closure of Fund III. The Indian startup ecosystem has grown exponentially since we started Kae Capital 10 years back,” said Sasha Mirchandani, Founder and Managing Partner of Kae Capital.
“Having been around for so long, we have understood how tough it is to build great companies. We believe we are a true all-weather partner to our founders, helping them navigate through good, and most importantly tough times, when they need us the most,” he said.
He also said the firm’s commitment to being a founder-first firm has remained consistent from the start, despite changing market conditions.
“We focus on backing the best founders that are also, importantly, good human beings. I am thankful to all our investors who have backed us over the years and to our peer venture capital funds who have co-invested with us as well,” he added.
Kae Capital is a pioneer of early-stage investing in India, focused on tech startups, and has been investing in India for 10+ years.
Founded in 2012, and based out of Mumbai and Bengaluru, the firm is a sector-agnostic fund that invests in pre-seed to pre-series A. Its partners with passionate founders and teams, building in India for the world.
The firm aims to be an all- weather partner to its portfolio founders, enabling them to build enduring companies.
It has a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 billion, having invested in 79 startups. Its portfolio has a mix of B2B and business to consumer (B2C) startups.
Some of the marquee names are Tata 1MG (health tech), Zetwerk (manufacturing tech), Porter (logistics tech), 1K (B2B retail tech), and Wysa (health tech). Kae is the first institutional investor in a majority of its portfolio companies.