Former Policybazaar backer Inventus launches $120-million fund, rebrands itself as Athera

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Early-stage venture capital (VC) firm Inventus Advisory Services, one of Policybazaar’s first backers, which got a blockbuster exit when the fintech unicorn got listed on the exchanges last year, has launched its fourth fund with a corpus of $120 million fund (around Rs 900 crore).

Inventus has also rebranded itself as Athera Venture Partners and said it will invest only in Indian companies through the fourth fund. Athera is a Sanskrit word that means ‘path’ and direction and the rebranding aligns with its focus on investing in the Indian startup ecosystem, the venture capital company said.

Inventus has applied for Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) approval and expects to mark the first close of its fourth fund in the next three to six months. The first close of a fund is a fundraising landmark for venture capital firms after which they start investing.

“We have already filed for Sebi’s approval, a few weeks back, so it should happen sometime shortly," said Rutvik Doshi, General Partner, Inventus Advisory Services (Athera Venture Partners), in a virtual interaction with Moneycontrol.

“In terms of being confident of being able to raise this amount, we've started talking to both our existing investors and some potential investors for the past few weeks, and despite the negative sentiment on the public markets, the kind of feedback that we received from our investors or other potential institutional investors, has been actually very, very positive. We should be able to mark the first close in the next three to six months and it will be somewhere close to the existing fund size,” Doshi added.

Inventus will be making around 18 investments through its fourth fund and out this, 12 will be at pre-Series A or Series A investments in technology startups, Doshi said, adding that the remaining six investments will be in the seed stages or early for a pre-product market fit stages and those will most likely be in technology, and emerging technology sectors.

“We remain a tech-focused fund. When I say tech focus, it's a broad definition of tech, in which, you build a diversified portfolio of consumer internet, B2B (business-to-business) SaaS (software-as-a-service), and some emerging technologies,” said Doshi.

“That's our bread and butter, we'll continue doing that also,” Doshi added.

Inventus Capital Partners was established in 2006 as a cross-border investing firm, investing in the US and India. In 2018, the company said it raised its third fund having a corpus of Rs 369 crore, which it claimed was oversubscribed. The third fund was India-centric, and the VC has invested in as many as 13 companies through it.

Inventus has invested in 21 companies in India to date and has exited companies like PolicyBazaar through its IPO (initial public offering). RedBus, when it was acquired by Naspers, Sokrati after Dentsu acquired it, Instahealth with its acquisition by Practo, among others. Inventus has also invested in some other companies including HealthifyMe, Tricog, and Moveinsync.

Inventus' launch of a new fund comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem is witnessing a slowdown with venture capital and private equity firms, including some of the largest in the world, are slashing investment commitments, due to rising interest rates, surging inflation and the on-going war in Europe. VC firms are also advising founders to cut and rationalise costs and are warning them of difficult times ahead.

On May 25, Moneycontrol reported that Sequoia Capital, one of the world's largest VC firms, told its portfolio founders that the era of being rewarded for hypergrowth at any costs is quickly coming to an end with investors shifting towards companies who can demonstrate current profitability.

“Ups and downs are part of the game, but the focus has to be on the fact that we are a 10-year investment company, we invest in companies and by the time we exit, it is somewhere between six to nine years,” Parag Dhol, General Partner, Inventus Advisory Services (Athera Venture Partners).

I would say till you do so. So, to that extent, all of these crazy rises till December of last year or the current slowdown or whatever, are variations around what I would say is the secular mean. So, that's the focus that we are bringing to it,” Dhol added.