Ankur Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on technology disruptions for the next billion, has announced the first close of its second fund Ankur Capital Fund II (ACF II) at ₹240 crore. The fund expects to reach its target close of ₹350 crore later this year.
ACF-II saw participation from CDC Group Plc, the UK’s first impact investor and Development Finance Institution and other international and domestic institutional investors. The fund also saw participation from existing LPs, The Dutch Good Growth Fund and SIDBI which is investing out of its Fund of Funds Startup program.
Founded in 2014 by Penn/INSEAD alum Ritu Verma and ex-COO of Zee e-learning Rema Subramanian, Ankur Capital’s first fund invested across 14 companies covering sectors across agritech, food, healthcare and vernacular technologies. Some of the companies include Cropin, Niramai, Healthsutra, ERC, and StringBio.
Apart from investing its own capital, UK based CDC group partners with Funds and businesses that work to create significant development impact across multiple sectors. Working closely with Ankur Capital, CDC will play a key role in advancing the Fund’s approach to environmental and social practices, both at the fund and portfolio level. CDC will also help strengthen the network of portfolio advisers and build further capacity in portfolio companies.
Ritu Verma, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Ankur Capital, said, “We are thankful to our backers to help us make a difference at the ground level”. Rema Subramanian, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Ankur Capital added, “Ankur is looking to go deeper with its investments and will support companies from ₹3 Crore to ₹35 Crores.”
The second fund was launched in early 2019 and has also onboarded Krishnan Neelakantan, ex-head of CLSA India Research as a partner. The fund will continue its focus on frontier technologies that unlock markets for the next billion. It will continue to leverage its expertise and knowledge in the agritech, food, vernacular and health space but will also expand into sectors such as fintech and edtech. The fund expects to make 15-18 investments and will look to deploy in 6-8 companies in this coming year.
