Arkam Ventures announces final close of maiden fund at $106 million

Early-stage fund Arkam Ventures announced the close of its maiden fund at $106 million on April 13. The company said the fund was oversubscribed, and has so far invested in twelve companies with a focus on technology innovation for 'Middle India'.

Large institutional investors in the fund include British International Investment Plc, Nippon India Digital Innovation, Evolvence Group, a global fund of funds, a large US endowment, Capria, and SIDBI.

Early backers include large family offices and startup founders such as Info-Edge co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Flipkart founder Binny Bansal, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and MakeMyTrip co-founder and Group CEO Rajesh Magow.

Led by partners Rahul Chandra and Bala Srinivasa, Arkam has invested in companies such as Smallcase, Krazybee, Jar, Smart staff, Jai Kisan, Signzy, SpotDraft, Wint Wealth, Invact, Mudrex, BestDoc and Jumbotail. Seven of these twelve companies have already raised follow-up rounds at significant mark-ups since the original Arkam investment, the company said in a statement.

The fund invests in pre-series A to Series B companies with investments in the range of Rs 10-20 crore.

Chandra said in a statement, "At Arkam, we invest significant time with our founders to help lay the foundation for growth in the company’s formative years. Our goal is to strengthen this position of being the partner of choice by continuing to be a high-value contributor to the founder’s journey."

"We are a thesis-driven firm and have a shared vision with each of our portfolio companies. We feel fortunate to be partnering with some of the best teams building new Middle India digital categories or innovating with digital infrastructure that can address the needs of millions of Indians. Each of these companies combines unique insights into a complex problem with a disruptive technology solution that paves the way to large and profitable businesses," Srinivasa said in a statement.

Chandra was previously co-founder at Helion Ventures, where he backed over a dozen start-ups across three funds and was involved in the journeys of companies such as Equitas (IPO), Spandana (IPO), SMS Gupshup, Shubham Housing, MoEngage, UnitedLex (Acquired), LetsBuy (Flipkart) and Toppr (Byju’s).

Srinivasa was previously a Partner at Kalaari Capital where he was involved with start-ups like Upstox, Jumbotail, Credit Vidya, and Mettl across areas such as lending, mobile brokerage, and credit scoring, food/grocery and skilling.