Healthcare veteran GSK Velu, a name pretty much in the news after his rather controversial, 900 crore exit from diagnostic chain Metropolis Healthcare, has now set out to use that money to set up two new investment funds.
Velu, who recently exited Metropolis after selling his 37% stake to PE firm Carlyle for Rs 900 crore due to alleged differences with majority holder — the Shah family, has set out to set up two new firms. One of them is being called Stakeboat, and is expected to have a corpus of over $100 Million, while the other one being a family office with close to $75 Million under management.
Talking about his new firms, Velu said,
Just like a stakeboat helps other boats navigate the race, our fund will steer entrepreneurs towards building sustainable and successful businesses.
As for the new firm’s financials and structuring, it will have close to $20 Million invested by Velu himself while the rest of that $80 Million being raised from multiple family offices and larger institutional funds. And while velu will hold the position of non-executive chairman, the fund will have two general partners (GPs) — private equity veteran Kandaswamy Chandrashekhar and old-time Velu confidant Athmanathan Ganesan.
Chandrashekhar, who has worked at ICICI Venture, People Capital among others, said,
We will hit the ground running. Using funds from our anchor investment, we plan to close some deals before going out in the market to raise funds.
Stakeboat will be looking at a seven-year fund with a window to make it an optional “plus two”. And while SEBI approval is awaited, firm’s general partners have already started scouting for potential deals. Stakeboat’s persepctive domains include healthcare services, consumer- led companies and enterprise technology.
Both new firms will also co-invest as and when a larger sum requirement comes up.
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