Venture fund for early-stage startups Cactus Venture Partners has announced the final close of its first fund with over Rs 630 crore, one of the largest first-time venture capital funds raised in the country, the company announced on Wednesday. The fund has secured 60 per cent of the capital commitment from domestic sources and the remaining from international limited partners (LPs) including family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals in the US, Singapore, EU, and the UK.
Domestic LPs included SIDBI, Self-Reliant India Fund (SRI Fund), and the UP Startup Fund.
“We’ve got a mix of foreign and domestic investors. From the family offices, we have the commitment from one large mining group and one flexible packaging company based out of Western India. There is also a Raipur-based mining, sealing and renewable sector company and a mining group based out of Bengaluru,” Rajeev Kalambi, General Partner, Cactus Venture Partners told FE Aspire.
“Our HNI investors come from diverse backgrounds, including successful entrepreneurs in technology and senior leaders from the US, Singapore, and Europe. We also have a couple of family offices from Europe contributing to the fund,” said Kalambi.
The fund was initially for over Rs 500 crore along with Rs 250 crore as part of the green shoe option. However, due to market conditions, it couldn’t reach the entire green shoe target.
It currently has five companies Kapture, Vitraya, AMPM, Auric, and Lohum in its portfolio and is targeting to make an additional 8-10 investments over the next one to two years.
“To date, we have experienced one early exit (from B2B risk management and monitoring platform Rubix Data Sciences) as well, leaving us with a current portfolio of five companies. Therefore, we plan to make an additional 10 investments to reach our target of 15 in total,” Amit Sharma, General Partner, Cactus Venture Partners told FE Aspire.
Cactus Venture Partners focuses on startups in climate tech, health tech, and B2B SaaS segments at Series A and early Series B fundraising stages with established product-market fit (PMF).
The fundraising comes amid the tightening liquidity for startups and the decline in valuations of large internet companies by investors across multiple segments.
Sharma said despite market fluctuations, Cactus Venture Partners has remained focused on sectors with long-term growth potential.
“We have a broad emphasis on clean climate tech and health tech. Even within these verticals, there are various segments—around 50 per cent (of the market) in cleantech alone, and approximately 35 per cent in health tech. Enterprise software, on the other hand, is horizontal, not vertical. Thus, our focus is primarily on the pricing model, which can be applied across industries based on specific needs,” said Sharma.