8i Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund, has partially exited its seed investment in M2P Fintech at a 36X multiple, clocking an internal rate of return (IRR) of 415% over two years, it said in a statement on Monday. M2P offers banking-as-a-service (BaaS) to over 500 fintechs, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), banks and other players in the financial space. It is present in over 20 markets across Asia and North Africa.
Its valuation has grown by 60X to $600 million since 8i Ventures led its seed round in January 2020, where it saw investors like Tiger Global and Insight Partners participate, the statement added. The fintech company has Slice, Uni, Lazypay and Kodo as its clients.After the announcement, 8i Ventures — through its Fund I and affiliates — will continue to hold more than 75% of its original stake in the company.
“M2P is a crown jewel in our portfolio. We took a small partial exit at a 36X multiple to demonstrate the robustness of our venture model. We are grateful to M2P founders for choosing us as their seed venture capital. In reality, the company exceeded our seven-year revenue target in two years, while building an incredible 97% market share. We are great believers in the M2P and continue to hold more than 75% of our original stake,” said Vikram Chachra, founding partner, 8i Ventures.
The venture capital (VC) firm invests in start-ups which are anywhere between the pre-seed and Series B stage, and cheque sizes range from $300,000 to $1.3 million. “8i was the first VC fund to believe in M2P’s vision of building a world class BaaS infrastructure platform for the world from India. They have backed us in every round from seed through Series B. They are more like co-founders than investors for us at M2P,” said Madhusudanan R, CEO and co-founder, M2P Fintech.
8i Ventures’ Fund I was launched in May 2019 and had its final close on July 31, 2021. The size of the fund is $15.5 million. Its basic focus is to create new markets by removing friction from consumer and finance in India.It is currently up 2.7X with an IRR of 122% and a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of 4X. The VC’s other portfolio companies also include Slice and Easebuzz.
