Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital, which has backed PharmEasy, BYJU’s, Blackbuck, Dailyhunt, and Meesho among others, on July 19 announced the close of its first dedicated early-stage fund raising $250 million. This reiterates global venture capital (VC) sentiments moving towards early-stage investments amidst funding slowdown and macro uncertainties.
B Capital’s Ascent Fund II is the latest among several early-stage funds closed recently including Sequoia Capital’s $2.85 billion fund raise, Elevation Capital’s $670 million round, Accel Partners $650 million round and Lightspeed Ventures’ $500 million round. All of these funds are focused on finding bets in India and Southeast Asia.
The latest fund will be focused on finding start-ups across digital healthcare, enterprise software, fintech and logistics, among other growing industries.
Ascent invests in pre-seed through Series A rounds globally, with an emphasis on the US and Asia. B Capital is a global multi-stage investment firm.
Howard Morgan, Chair and General Partner, B Capital, said, “Forty years of investing has taught me that early-stage founders have the best view of where the market is heading. Ascent allows us to work with these entrepreneurs to build great companies ahead of the curve.”
The Ascent team was founded by Morgan, firm co-founder and Managing Partner Eduardo Saverin, General Partners Gabe Greenbaum and Karen Page, and Partner Karan Mohla.
Founded in 2015 by Saverin and Raj Ganguly, B Capital has an integrated team across eight locations in the US and Asia, as well as a strategic partnership with BCG, to provide the value-added support entrepreneurs need to scale fast and efficiently expand into new markets and build exceptional companies.
Currently, the firm has about $6.5 billion in assets under management across multiple funds. It focuses on seed to late-stage growth investments, primarily in the enterprise, financial technology and healthcare sectors.
