Stellaris closes its third fund at $300 million, ropes in Naman Lahoty as new partner

(L-R) Alok Goyal, Ritesh Banglani, Rahul Chowdhri, Naman Lahoty

Stellaris Venture Partners has announced closing its $300 million Fund III to back 25-30 startups over the next 3-4 years, signaling renewed confidence in India’s startup ecosystem after a tough startup funding winter this past year.

Stellaris’ Fund III saw repeat investments from existing limited partners as well as new commitments from global investors including university endowments, foundations, pension funds, and reputed Fund of Funds (FoF), the firm said in a media statement on November 28.

Stellaris has more than $600 million in assets under management. The firm will back startups within the AI, SaaS and fintech category, the firm added.

Stellaris, founded by three former partners of Helion Ventures- Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri, counts software firms Cisco and Infosys as well as the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) as its Limited Partners (LPs) or backers, among others.

“With this new fund, we’re excited to back founders using technology to solve deep problems in large markets. Our team, consisting of former entrepreneurs and business builders, brings deep expertise and global networks in key sectors like consumer tech, AI, SaaS and financial services to support our portfolio companies throughout their journey,” said Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners.

As part of the launch, Stellaris also announced some leadership appointments. Naman Lahoty, who was previously a Principal with the firm, has been appointed as Partner.

Additionally, Vardhan Dharnidharka, an AI/ML engineering leader previously based in New York, has joined as an Investment Principal and relocated to Bangalore.

Stellaris has backed 44 tech startups across two funds, 60 percent of which were inception-stage businesses. The firm participates as a lead investor in Seed and Series A rounds of startups.

The VC firm is an early investor in consumer brand Mamaearth which went public last year, and in Whatfix, a digital adoption platform that recently raised a $125 Million Series E round.

End of 2023 and the year 2024 has been a pivotal year for Indian IPOs, with startups like Mamaearth, Ola Electric as well as Swiggy entering public markets. Despite a challenging global economic environment, these companies managed to navigate market dynamics.

The current public markets' euphoria in India is akin to what the private markets experienced in 2021, when India minted a record 45 unicorns, or startups valued at or over a billion dollars, in a span of 12 months.

Stellaris has also backed EV financing startup Turno, credit-on-UPI provider Kiwi, AI SaaS companies Orbitshift and CARPL.ai, credit improvement platform Goodscore and D2C consumer brand Nestasia.

Stellaris' new fund launch comes at a time when top venture capital firms like Peak XV  have downsized their fund.

In October, Peak XV Partners reduced the size of its $2.85 billion fund by 16 percent or $465 million, as it looks to deploy capital more judiciously and return uninvested monies to its sponsors or limited partners (LPs), amid a buoyant public market and its rub-off effect on private market valuations.