Prime Venture Partners' fourth fund gets oversubscribed, closes at $120 mn

Prime VP Managing Partners Shripati Acharya, Sanjay Swamy and Amit Somani

Early-stage venture capital (VC) fund Prime Venture Partners has closed its fourth and largest fund at 20 percent higher than the planned quantum, amidst continuing investor interest in Indian startups.

The VC fund said on February 24 that the fund was closed at $120 million, higher than the previously planned $100 million. Moneycontrol had reported on August 25 last year that Fund IV will be used to make 15-20 investments in new areas such as  Decentralised Finance (DeFi)/Crypto, Electric Vehicle, and Gaming infrastructure platforms.

These investments are in addition to the fund's existing focus areas of  Fintech, EdTech, HealthTech, Consumer Internet, and Global SaaS.
Amit Somani, who is one of the three Managing Partners at Prime Venture Partners, said, "We greatly appreciate and are humbled by the unambiguous support and confidence of our long-time LPs and new investors, which allowed us to complete an oversubscribed fundraise. With Fund IV, Prime VP is well-positioned to back a new group of category-defining technology startups and inspiring entrepreneurs in India."

With this closing, the new fund takes the total capital under management across all Prime Venture Partners funds to over $250 million. In addition to existing investors, Fund IV is backed by International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, a top-tier university endowment, a top-tier Fund of Funds and several global technology entrepreneurs.

Prime Venture Partners’ last three fundraises were for $8 million in 2012, $46 million in 2015, and $72 million in 2018.

On January 13, Prime Venture Partners had announced that Foundation Private Equity fully acquired stakes of investors from Prime’s first fund in 2012. This exit was a means for the venture capital firm to give investors an exit in the Indian market.

Started by Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya, Somani joined as a partner more recently. The fund has invested in interactive learning startup Quizziz, software solutions provider MyGate, neo bank NiYO, digital health player MFine, Dozee among others.

As per the Cambridge Associates benchmarks, all of Prime VP’s funds are in the top decile of all global VC funds of their respective vintages, the firm said.

Over the past year, startups in India have seen a massive funding boom with growing valuations and large funding amounts across stages. Indian startups raised over $35 billion, three times the previous record.