Elev8 Venture Partners has announced the final close of its debut venture capital fund at $160 million (~ ₹1,400 crore). The fund has been launched to back Indian startups at the growth stage, with a focus on companies that have already proven their business models and are ready to expand further. Notably, Elev8 Venture Partners was established by Navin Honagudi, who was earlier a partner at Kae Capital.
The fund has secured backing from a mix of global and domestic investors. Its anchor is KB Investment, part of South Korea’s KB Financial Group, one of the largest financial services firms in the country. Additional commitments have come from the Self-Reliant India Fund, family offices, global institutional funds, and several unicorn founders, creating a diversified base of limited partners spanning India, Hong Kong, and South Korea.
Elev8 has already begun deploying capital. About one-third of the fund (around $53 million) has been invested in five startups, which include astrology platform Astrotalk, identity verification company IDfy, wealthtech player Smallcase, logistics startup Porter, and fintech firm Snapmint. The fund expects to make 12 to 14 more investments over the next 12 to 18 months, typically writing cheques of $10 million to $15 million into companies valued between $100 million and $300 million.
Importantly, the focus will remain on businesses that combine profitability with strong governance, often backed by other institutional investors. Elev8 is mainly focusing on sectors like consumer internet, enterprise software like SaaS and other B2B platforms, and fintech.
According to the firm, it is also open to investing in premium consumer brands that are gaining popularity in India. While the firm is not treating artificial intelligence (AI) as a separate investment category, it points out that AI already plays an important role in many of the companies it studies, mostly as a tool to make operations more efficient. For startups that are built purely around AI, Elev8 prefers to look at them more closely only after they have reached a meaningful scale, with annual revenues of at least $15 million.
The development comes at a time when several prominent venture capital firms are strengthening their India presence with fresh pools of capital. For example, last week, Elevation Capital launched a new $400 million fund, Elevation Holdings, dedicated to late-stage investments in technology-driven consumer and financial services startups. The firm plans to back companies that are already profitable or are expected to achieve profitability within the next three years. Elevation Holdings has already made its debut investment by participating in a $170 million funding round for used-car platform Spinny. Earlier this year, Accel raised $650 million for its latest India-focused fund, which is the firm’s eighth India-dedicated fund, following a similar $650 million fund closed in 2022.
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