Founded in 2012, Kae Capital claims to be the first institutional investor in unicorns including Tata 1MG and Zetwerk, and soonicorn (soon-to-be-unicorn) like Porter. Kae Capital also claimed that it has invested in 79 startups, with a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 billion, and has made 14 exits to date.
Kae Capital, a homegrown venture capital (VC) firm has marked the final close of its third fund at Rs 767 crore (or about $100 million), joining the growing list of VC and private equity (PE) firms to raise large India-focused funds despite global macroeconomic headwinds. The sector-agnostic fund that saw participation from international and domestic institutional investors, family offices, and startup founders was oversubscribed, Kae Capital said in a statement on November 24.
Through the fund, Kae Capital will be investing in pre-Seed to pre-Series rounds, the company said, adding that its initial cheque sizes would range between $1 million and $3 million. Kae is targeting to invest in 25 companies through this fund and will look at sectors like B2B (business-to-business) commerce, consumer tech, SaaS (software-as-a-service), fintech, and D2C (direct-to-consumers), among others, it said.
“The Indian startup ecosystem has grown exponentially since we started Kae Capital 10 years back. 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,” said Sasha Mirchandani, founder and managing partner, Kae Capital.
“Our 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 VC funds who have co-invested with us as well,” Mirchandani added.
Founded in 2012, Kae Capital claims to be the first institutional investor in unicorns including Tata 1MG and Zetwerk, and soonicorn (soon-to-be-unicorn) like Porter. Kae Capital also claimed that it has invested in 79 startups, with a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 billion, and has made 14 exits to date. Kae Capital has become the latest VC firm to raise a large India-dedicated fund, joining the likes of some of the world’s biggest players, including Sequoia Capital, Accel, Elevation Capital, and Matrix Partners.
Data compiled by media organizations shows that 13 India-dedicated PE/VC firms have raised close to $7 billion from limited partners in 2022. However, investors still expect the much-talked-about funding winter to last for another 12-18 months.
