Startup funding: Early-stage B2B SaaS-focused venture capital firm Pentathlon Ventures on Tuesday launched a Rs 450 crore Fund II to invest in 25 B2B SaaS startups. According to Pentathlon Ventures, the fund will focus on investing in startups working across Enterprise digital transformation, e-commerce enablement, fintech, vertical SaaS, applied AI, sustainable tech, and health tech in the B2B SaaS sector.
“The revenues coming from India-based B2B start-ups are expected to grow 25X in the next 8 years. With an impressive 50% faster time to revenue, better revenue predictability, and solid gross margins ranging between 70-80%, it presents extraordinary prospects of building sustainable businesses,” said Sandeep Chawla, Managing Partner, Pentathlon Ventures.
Fund II has raised capital from various domestic and global companies comprising business leaders, corporations, and Institutions. Through its first fund, the VC firm invested in 23 startups, including Deeptek, Rezolve, Spyne, Dista, TurboHire, and ShopSe, among others.
The venture capital firm was founded in 2020 by Gireendra Kasmalkar (Ideas to Impact, Verisoft), Sandeep Chawda (Globant, Clarice, Veritas), Saurabh Lahoti (Grassroots Business Fund, Ennovent); Madhukar Bhatia (Sapience, Symphony, Veritas); Ashok Mayya (Rising Pharma, Citron Pharma); Hemant Joshi (Sapience, Symphony, Veritas), and Shashank Deshpande (Globant, Clarice, Veritas).
Speaking on Fund II, Pentathlon Ventures’ Managing Partner Gireendra Kasmalkar said, “A couple of decades back, India was known for offshore IT services. Later, B2C start-ups gained prominence because of India’s population/consumption story. Today, Indian B2B start-ups are on their way to becoming global leaders within this decade. Add to this the tailwinds from the global focus moving to India. We are truly on the cusp of a huge virtuous cycle.”
According to the ‘India e-Conomy Report’ jointly published by Google, Bain & Company, and Temasek, India’s B2B e-commerce is likely to jump 13-14 times to $105-120 billion while the SaaS market may expand 5-6 times to $65-75 billion by 2030.