Artha Group Launches Syndicate Investment Artha Continuum Fund Exclusively for Family Offices and UHNIs

• ACF is an exclusive syndicate launched for family offices and UHNIs to participate In bridge rounds of growth-stage startups
• Unlike typical VC funds, ACF gives investors the freedom to choose the startups they want to invest in
• A minimum investment of Rs 10 crore from quality LPs investing through a single vehicle will provide family offices and founders the perfect platform to engage through highly coveted bridge rounds alongside premier VC funds
• ACF will invest in 8 – 10 startups annually
• Artha India Ventures with its proven track record and India focus will lead the due diligence and negotiations on behalf of its elite investors.

Artha Group, which has Rs 1000 crore AUM, announces the launch of Artha Continuum Fund (ACF), a groundbreaking syndicate fund tailor-made for family offices and Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNIs). Designed as the gateway to bridge rounds for startups transitioning to growth-stage ventures, ACF presents elite investors with privileged access to high-potential investment rounds.

Highlights of ACF:

• Exclusivity: A syndicate crafted just for family offices and UHNIs, India’s first.
• Opportunity: Direct access to bridge rounds of emerging growth-stage ventures
• Commitment: A minimum investment of ₹10 crores, signifying the gravity of each deal.
• Pipeline: ACF's maiden deal is set to get announced this quarter, aiming for 8-10 robust deals annually.

Through ACF, investors can now tap into previously out-of-reach opportunities due to the capital-intensive nature of such rounds. The fund will strategically co-invest alongside premier VC funds, offering investors a seamless entry into the growth stage VC ecosystem. This blend empowers investors with the diligence of venture capital and the cost advantages of direct investment.

Anirudh A. Damani, Director of Artha India Ventures

Anirudh A. Damani, Director of Artha India Ventures, says, "ACF arose from listening to our discerning investors. They yearned for a competent entity to oversee rigorous due diligence, sophisticated negotiations, and post-investment management while crafting their direct investment narratives."

ACF addresses a key challenge for many family offices and UHNIs: the depth of due diligence and negotiation power. Leveraging its vast resources and seasoned team, ACF emerges as the optimal platform for those seeking elevated returns from private investments but wary of the risks associated with early-stage startups. Notably, ACF isn't a blind pool, granting investors the autonomy to select and allocate funds each deal.

Sandesha Jaitapkar, COO, Artha Group, says, "ACF is more than just a fund. It's a movement to democratize elite investments in tech startups. We bridge the gap, allowing UHNIs to be actively involved, benefiting from the collective wisdom of seasoned VCs and superangels.”

With a strategic alignment with Artha India Ventures, ACF has garnered in-principle commitments from leading LPs. The fund remains committed to category-leading companies showing significant traction with clear profitability horizons. At its core, ACF's strategy addresses tangible human problems, optimizing unit economics, fortifying competitive moats, and leveraging technology as a potent enabler.

Proven Track Record in Syndication:

Before acquiring its license, Artha Group honed its syndication skills through strategic partnerships. It executed a notable ₹18 crore ($2.7m) syndicate with LeverageEdu, a prominent $1.9m syndication in the no-code platform Laminar, and a remarkable ₹5.5 crores investment in the spacetech pioneer, GalaxEye. These ventures stand as testaments to the group's proficiency and foresight in identifying and nurturing high-potential startups.

About Artha India Ventures:

Founded in 2012, Artha India Ventures ('AIV') has firmly established itself as a formidable player in the investment landscape. As the General Partner to flagship funds like the Artha Venture Fund and Artha Select Fund, AIV influences and shapes their investment blueprints. Simultaneously, its role as a Limited Partner in various global funds underscores its expansive investment reach. With a diversified portfolio that comprises 80+ startups across India, the USA, Israel, and Africa, AIV's investments include market influencers like OYO, Purplle, LeverageEdu, Exotel, Karza, Tala, IconBuild, Caja Robotics, and Badili.

About Artha Group:

Artha Group is the embodiment of diversified and influential investment. Beyond its identity as a family office, the group proudly champions the Artha Venture Fund, India's pioneering early-stage microVC fund, and the acclaimed Artha Select Fund, recently spotlighted in Bain & Company's / IVCA's 2023 Report on the Indian Venture Capital landscape.

The group's investment philosophy gets epitomized by its commitment to startups that promise and deliver innovation and transformation. Its vast portfolio, which extends to 100+ startups worldwide, showcases illustrious names such as Everest Fleet, Agnikul, LenDenClub, KarmaLife, and InstaAstro.

Artha India Ventures announces its 3rd investment in the African continent; backs Kenya-based mobility marketplace startups BuuPass

• BuuPass raises $1.30 million in a Pre-seed round
• Round has been led by Founders Factory Africa and participated by Google Black Founders Fund and Artha India Ventures
• BuuPass has previously received a $1 million grant from Hult Prize, backed by Bill Clinton
• Funds raised will get used for increasing market share in East Africa

Kenya-based B2B2C mobility marketplace BuuPass has raised $1.30 million in a pre-seed round led by Founders Factory Africa. The round also saw participation from Google Black Founders Fund, Gullit VC, Five35 VC, Artha India Ventures, FrontEnd Ventures, Adaverse, Renew Capital, Changecom, XA Network, Ajim Capital, and Daba Finance. Funds raised will get used for expanding into East African markets with a special focus on Kenya and Uganda since the Company aims to increase its market share in these markets. This is the first institutional round raised by BuuPass, which previously received $1 million in grants from Bill Clinton-backed Hult Prize.

Sonia Kabra, Co-founder, and Co-CEO, BuuPass, says, “Coming from a small town in India, traveling to larger cities meant long queues and endless wait times for buses or trains. Witnessing the impact of online travel-booking platforms like redBus and IRCTC, I co-founded BuuPass to build the digital infrastructure for transport in Africa. With the support of our investors, we’re thrilled to scale our product and expand our reach, making transportation more seamless and accessible. This funding will enable us to expand our footprint in Kenya and Uganda. Our goal is to create a comprehensive continent-wide network of interconnected transport that make traveling hassle-free for all.”

Founded in 2016, BuuPass follows a B2B2C approach and provides fleet owners with a full-stack bus management system (‘BMS’) for managing their operations, inventory, and sales. The BMS also includes a point-of-sale solution to capture bookings and provides access to a parcel management module. BuuPass helps customers search, compare and book their tickets across different channels through their marketplace, like websites, apps, and USSD codes.

Anirudh A Damani, Director of Artha India Ventures, says, “The African continent is fast emerging as a startup innovation hotbed. The African ecosystem is churning out many unique investment opportunities that will disrupt the market across sectors. Artha India Ventures is taking an early bet to back potential category winners with immense promise. In that vein, BuuPass has taken the lead in building digital rails for Africa’s intercity transport infrastructure. Based on Artha’s success in navigating this digitization play in India, we are confident that BuuPass will grow rapidly into a market leader.”

BuuPass has over 1,200 vehicles registered on its platform from over 25 bus companies. Through its partnership with Safaricom (or M-Pesa), the Company is the sole technology provider for online railway ticket booking in Kenya and generated a GMV of $30 million in CY 2022. It currently processes ~12,000 transactions daily.

Wyclife Omondi, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, BuuPass, says, “Over 9 million travelers have saved time and money by buying their tickets from the comfort of their homes. Additionally, our bus operators have seen a significant decrease in cash leakages and increased revenue from online bookings. 80% of our clients come through referrals, demonstrating that our focus on customer satisfaction is yielding fruit. We can customize the technology for most businesses, give on-demand support, and provide USSD functionality.”

Mr. Akshay Grover, Group CEO of Cellulant and potential payments partner for BuuPass said, “At Cellulant, I have seen the importance of building digital infrastructure to empower and grow businesses. Therefore, the opportunity to invest in a company like BuuPass, which is digitizing the $40 billion intercity transport industry, was super exciting. Both Sonia and Wyclife are outstanding founders with an excellent track record of execution, and together, we can build strong partnerships within the African ecosystem. Further, I am delighted to partner with Artha in our second investment in Africa.”

BuuPass is Kenya’s largest online bus, train, and flight ticketing platform that has transformed bus travel in the country by bringing ease and convenience to millions of Kenyan travelers. They work with the country’s leading bus, train, and flight operators to bring you the convenience of digital bookings.

Artha India Ventures (‘AIV’) is a distinguished family office founded in 2012, with a diverse investment portfolio encompassing renewables, leasing, and institutional funds. AIV manages over ₹800+ crores in third-party capital and has invested in 80+ high-performing startups across India, the USA, Israel, and Africa, including renowned companies such as OYO, Purplle, LeverageEdu, Tala, IconBuild, Rapido, Coutloot, Chai Break, Karza Technologies, Stay Vista, Mobilewalla, and Exotel. In addition, the AIV currently operates a 10+ MW renewable energy portfolio and leases more than 100 cars, demonstrating its dedication to sustainable growth and business development.

The AIV-promoted Artha Select Fund (‘ASF’) has recently gained recognition as a leading fund in Bain & Company’s / IVCA’s 2023 Report on the Indian Venture Capital ecosystem.

Artha Group Launches Winners-only microVC Fund – Artha Select Fund; ₹100+ Cr Raised from Current LPs in 3 Weeks

• ₹450 crores fund size (₹330 crores + ₹120 crores greenshoe)
• Will invest in growth rounds of Artha Venture Fund and Artha India Ventures portfolio startups
• The average investment size would be ₹20 crores per investment in Series B and ₹20 crores follow-on in Series C
• The first term sheet is signed
• The Fund will announce the first close shortly
• Mumbai-based Artha Group announced the launch of its ₹450 crores winners-only microVC fund – Artha Select Fund (’ASF’).

The Pune-based Kirloskar Family Office, the family office of former Reliance Capital CIS Madhusudan Kela, Abhinav Sinha (MD – British International Investment), Narendra Karnavat of CA firm Karnavat and Co., Jashvant Raval of JCR & Co, Mumbai-based listed firm SAT Industries, Varun Bansal of Jayashree Polymers, Rajiv Lakhotia of Shree Karni Fabcom, and several other investors have (so far) backed this opportunities fund. Abhinav Sinha will also be joining the investment committee at ASF; he was already an IC member at AVF.

ASF will back category-winning startups from Artha’s portfolio in their follow-on rounds. The Fund will commit up to ₹20 crores in the Series B round and an additional ₹20 crores in the Series C round in startups where Artha is already an investor. ASF will back 12-14 startups through this vehicle.

ASF raised its first ₹100 crores in less than 3 weeks, as current LPs enthusiastically chose to double down on the winners of Artha Venture Fund (‘AVF’) – India’s first early-stage microVC Fund. The established winners of AVF include LenDenClub, Agnikul, Everest Fleet, HobSpace, InstaAstro, KarmaLife, etc.

Artha announced the final close of AVF in June 2021 at over ₹225 crores, exceeding its target corpus of ₹200 crores. The Fund has made 27 investments so far, with a combined valuation of ₹3,600+ crores. AVF has provided spectacular portfolio returns to investors with a 3.61x MoIC (Multiple on Invested Capital) and 120%+ IRR as the earliest investor in these startups.

AVF’s portfolio startup Daalchini raised its Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures. AVF had led Daalchini’s seed and Pre-Series A rounds. Besides, AVF recently announced its investment into circular-economy startup Nirmalaya.

Bhavin Patel, CEO, and Founder of LenDenClub, India’s largest P2P-lending platform, said, “Artha has been a true partner for LenDenClub, investing in us when we were disbursing just 8-10 loans per month. In those early days, with their support and understanding of working with other startups, Dipesh and I could establish solid KPIs for the business and ensure that our business decisions were based on data.”

In December 2021, LenDenClub raised a $10m Series A from Ohm Enterprises (Amal Parikh’s family office), Tuscan Ventures, Som Ventures LLP, QED Innovation Labs, Angel List, ace Indian cricket Hardik Pandya, and Shajikumar Devakar (IIFL Wealth).

“Artha led our seed round and doubled down on that investment in the Pre-Series A. In addition, their $1.8m investment in the Series A round increased the investor’s confidence, aiding us in closing the round quickly,” Patel added.

LenDenClub has grown 20x since it closed its Series A round, disbursing more than ₹1000 crores through its platform in August 2022 – the first Indian P2P platform to achieve that milestone.

Artha will announce its first close along with its first investment shortly.

Chris Kolenaty, Head of Private Investments at the Kirloskar Family Office, says, “Over the last decade, the Kirloskar family has built an understanding of assessing private companies, opportunities, and entrepreneurs through venture investing. I met Anirudh 8 years ago in Dublin and stayed in touch with him as he grew the Artha portfolio. We became increasingly comfortable with Anirudh during AVF’s second close and decided to hit go this time. We see him becoming one of India’s top private investors and are excited to collaborate with him!”

Anirudh A. Damani – Managing Partner, Artha Select Fund, says, “We are ecstatic with the fantastic response to our winner’s Fund. We see early-growth rounds as an amazing investment opportunity to back founders at a critical inflection point in their venture journey. With ASF, we provide our founders with the added firepower to chase sound business metrics like revenues, positive unit economics, and profitability!”

About Artha Select Fund

Artha Select Fund (ASF) is a growth stage microVC fund with a target size of ₹450 crores launched by the Artha Group of Companies. ASF is a unique winners-only strategy that will invest in the top-performing startups from the Group’s portfolio of 100+ direct startup investments focussing on Series B & C rounds. 

Led by Anirudh A Damani, a second-generation investor, the firm has a network of limited partners, co-investors, founders, and family offices that traverse the globe.
Artha Group, the umbrella entity of ASF, has investments in 100+ startups across India, the US, Israel, Africa, and the UK. OYO, Purplle, LeveragEdu, Tala, IconBuild, Rapido, Coutloot, Chai Break, Karza Technologies, and Mobilewalla are some leading startups in its global portfolio.

Artha India Ventures Expands Its Presence to Africa; Invests in Kenya-based Re-Commerce Startup Badili

• Eyes investing in 8-10 African startups by 2023
• This is Artha India Ventures (AIV)'s 11th international investment that covers Israel, the USA and now Africa
• Rajesh Sawhney, Ritesh Malik, SOSV, Uncovered Fund and Grenfell Holdings also participated in the round

Artha India Ventures (AIV), the well-established family office of Ashok Kumar Damani, today announced a pre-seed investment in Badili, Africa's first online buy-back platform for smartphones, based in Kenya. This marks AIV's 1st investment in Africa and brings its international investments to 11 across Israel, the USA and now Africa, and the overall total (national and international) investments to 75.

AIV aims to spread its investment portfolio across 7-8 countries across the African continent and will invest in 25 more startups by 2024, with a cumulative fund allocation of over $20 million in Africa through direct, GP, LP and syndicated investments. AIV will invest in seed to series A rounds across fintech & lending, media infrastructure and consumer-tech sectors, depending on the proposition at hand.

Badili has raised the first tranche of $850,000 from the total target of a $3.35 million pre-seed round. Notable angels and institutional investors such as Rajesh Sawhney, Ritesh Malik, SOSV, Uncovered Fund and Grenfell Holdings participated in the tranche. 

Badili will utilise the funds for acquiring inventory, tech enhancement, and establishing its offline presence through brick-and-mortar stores across 7 cities in the East African country, Kenya. The consumer to business (C2B) startup is the first in Africa that purchases and sells used smartphones directly from/to the consumers and is supported by strategic partnerships in China, South Korea and India.

As a 1st of its kind, Badili has a serviceable market of 130 million+ second-hand smartphone users in Africa. In the absence of established e-commerce players like Amazon in Africa, Badili has introduced standardisation processes in an otherwise unorganised segment - usually dominated by local players. Coupled with a 119% mobile penetration in 2020 implying a ~10% YoY growth, the startup is eyeing a user base of 60 million by 2023 and is set to expand its services across 7 African countries, including Nigeria, which is the biggest smartphone market in the region.

Anirudh Damani, Managing Partner, Artha Venture Fund

Anirudh A Damani, Director, Artha India Ventures, said, "We are thrilled with our first investment in Africa as it is among the frontrunners of emerging markets after India. We have received a tremendous response from the African startup ecosystem and look forward to investing in 4 to 5 Africa-focused startups every year. Moreover, we are not limited to seed rounds and have expanded our investment strategy to include pre-series A and series A rounds for this important continent.

Badili had to be our maiden investment in the country as we resonate with Rishabh's pragmatic vision and frugal innovation. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with a solid track record from his previous startups. As the 1st player to purchase, refurbish and sell smartphones in Kenya, Badili has a clear first-mover advantage in the region. We are elated to have them on board."

Rishabh Lawania, Founder & CEO, Badili, commented, "With over 20% of smartphone users in Kenya opting for second-hand smartphone devices, we have identified a clear demand in the segment. So much so that we have partnered with various suppliers across countries, leading with India, that can enable us to meet the initial demand.

We have also established Badili as the leading choice for OEM players, and brands like Samsung and Apple have made us their official buy-back partners in Africa.

We wanted to partner with an investor that shared our vision, understood the re-commerce market, and who would help us grow. With AIV's investment legacy across continents, they were bound to be our preferred choice."

On the ecological front, as India is one of the highest e-waste generating nations in the world, of which 12% can be attributed to smartphones, the Badili team are doing their bit to offset the concerns. Hence, with India's strategic supply chain alliance, Badili aims to limit the adverse impact of used phones currently making their way to landfills. Riding strong on the first-mover advantage and on account of such alliances, Badili aims to transact 100 million phones annually by 2026.

About Badili

Based in Kenya, Badili is a re-commerce startup for old mobile phones. It operates through its website, mobile app, and a network of over 210 dealers. The company buys phones from a user, refurbishes, and sells them to the consumers looking for a cheaper alternative to a new phone with equivalent features. The company also plans to provide repair services and expand rapidly throughout Africa by expanding its dealer network and launching its own brick and mortar stores. Badili has a strategic supply chain alliance with India and its growth will only power the circular economy and lead to sustainable growth.

About Artha India Ventures

Artha India Ventures (AIV) is the alternative investment arm of Ashok Kumar Damani's family office. Founded in 2012, with 3.1x DPI, 7.3x MOIC and 21 exits, AIV currently has an impressive portfolio of over 75 companies spread across India, the USA, Israel and Africa. Helmed by Ashok Kumar Damani, a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned stockbroker, AIV generates liquidity through its operating assets, such as high-yielding renewable energy projects and GP investments in institutional funds. The generated cash is then invested in startup opportunities across the globe.

AIV has a sector-agnostic investment outlook and has a stake in segments such as edtech, content platforms, e-commerce, auto and healthtech amongst others. OYO Rooms, Tala, Baby Chakra, Rapido and Coutloot are some of the many names that have been part of AIV's portfolio. The whopping 150x and 165x returns from OYO Rooms and Exotel, respectively, and the potential 102x from Purplle, are testament to the team's ability to pick business winners. AIV is maintaining its growth trajectory and is set to make 100 investments by 2023.