Early-stage venture capital (VC) firm 8i Ventures, which had backed API infrastructure provider M2P Fintech as its first institutional investor, has exited the startup in its last funding round with a 12x return on its investment. The firm had invested Rs 9.7 crore in 2019 and has exited the company with Rs 115.9 crore, reflecting a 131% internal rate of return.
“We were the first institutional VC to back them in their seed round, and then we invested in series A and B. The company achieved what we thought it would and became the sort of market maker or category creator in the challenger card space and then ultimately expanded into a full fledged core banking system provider,” said Vikram Chachra, founding partner, 8i Ventures, in an interaction with FE.
M2P Fintech had raised just over $100 million in late September through primary and secondary financing in a Series D round, led by Helios Investment Partners. The company’s API infrastructure allows businesses to integrate financial services such as payments, credit and more on their platforms, in partnership with financial institutions.
8i Ventures had invested from its Fund I of $15.5 million, which is currently up 2.5x with an internal rate of return of 37% and a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of 3.3x.
Besides M2P, the fund had also invested in startups such as Blue Tokai, Slice, and Easebuzz, and nutraceuticals brand Bbetter.
8i Ventures marked the first closure of its second fund at $25 million in 2022, and plans to close the fund at $40-50 million. Chachra noted that limited partners are now very squarely focused on realised returns, rather than looking at unrealised returns that has not been marked to market.