Chiratae nets $337mn in its fourth fund

CHENNAI: Venture capital (VC) firm Chiratae Ventures on Friday said it closed its fourth fund at $337 million and it was oversubscribed by 25%. Chiratae said this makes it the biggest tech

VC

in India.

Chiratae’s Fund IV was backed by marquee global and domestic investors, with the latter comprising over half of the backers. The Indian investors to Chiratae’s new fund include family offices and industrial families and global backers include those from the US, the UK, Europe, Japan and Singapore.

“We have the backing of marquee global and Indian investors repeatedly. Chiratae has delivered stellar exits including a recent 43x return from

PlaySimple

,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures).

“We are seeing over 3,000 new companies every year. This number will increase further as India grows to a $5-trillion economy. Indian insurance companies have also now backed us which is a game-changer for us,” said Chiratae Ventures founder and MD T C Meenakshisundaram.

With assets under management (AUM) of about $950 million, Chiratae Ventures has invested in more than 100 deals since its inception in 2006, delivered two IPOs, four unicorns while completing 38 exits with a record eight consecutive years of capital distributions to investors. CloudCherry, Flipkart, Manthan, Myntra, Newgen, PlaySimple, and

Xpressbees

are some of the portfolio companies that have been fully exited.

Chiratae’s portfolio companies have filed over 120 patents with 27 of these granted, the VC firm said. Chiratae has backed homegrown unicorns such as FirstCry, Flipkart, Lenskart, and

PolicyBazaar

. Chiratae Venture’s global advisory board includes Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.