Eternal Capital, which has established a corpus of INR 120 Cr (~$14.3 Mn) with a target of helping 40 early-stage entrepreneurs in the next three years, is all set to create a niche for itself in the startup ecosystem. So far, the fund already received promises from some company founders as well as CEOs including the former Suhail Sameer, the former CEO of BharatPe, Deep Kalra, the founder of MakeMyTrip, and others. Bahl is the latest to a line of former BharatPe employees who exited the fintech startup in the last year to set up new businesses.
Druv. Dhanraj Bahl, the former BharatPe COO, has decided to start his own fund to support early-stage startups with investments.
Eternal fund, which aims to raise capital of INR 120 Cr (~$14.3 Mn), will assist 40 early stage companies through the next three years period.
The green-shoe option as worth INR 120 crore,the fund’s total capacity reaches INR 240 crore.
Eternal Capital established back in 2023 by Bahl is a sector-agnostic early stage VC fund that tries to build an investment portfolio “for the future.”
Other startup founders and CXOS have already committed to the fund. These include Former CEO of BharatPe Suhail Sameer, Deep Kalra, CEO of MakeMyTrip, Tarun Mathur, cofounder of PolicyBazaar, CEO of VLCC Vikas Gupta, President of ZoomCar’ Nalin Negi, CEO of BharatPe, Sameer Chugh, founder of Mosambee, and cofounders of SimSim, Saurabh Vashishtha, Kunal Suri, and Amit Bagaria, among others.
“We are one of the first and few operator-led venture capital businesses in India. Globally, operator-led funds have outperformed more traditional peers because of their ability to connect quickly, engage deeply, and bring incremental value to the founders and enterprises they support. Our approach to date has been no different, making us not only the ‘partner of first choice’ for founders but also the preferred co-investment partner for other funds,” Bahl added.
Bahl stepped down as BharatPe’s COO in August 2023 to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.
Since 2020, he has supported more than 50 firms as an angel investor, including Vama, Fleek, Basic Home Loans, ApniBus, DrinkPrime, AdmitKard, GenWise, and Stupa Sports Analytics.
The news comes as several venture capital firms have established funds for local entrepreneurs in response to the country’s increasing digital use and disposable cash. India’s thriving IT industry provides a lucrative opportunity for investors.
As many as 63 funds worth $5 billion were formed in 2023 to support Indian companies, while another 126 funds worth $18 billion were launched in 2022.
It’s worth mentioning that Bahl is the latest in a line of former BharatPe executives who have left the finance startup since 2022 to start their own businesses.
Ashneer Grover, cofounder and previous managing director of BharatPe, has returned to the financial space with the launch of ZeroPe, his second venture under the umbrella of Third Unicorn.
Also, the finance SaaS platform OTPless was introduced by Tanmay Sagar, Satyam Nathani, and Bhavik Koladiya, the former cofounder and engineering lead of BharatPe.
