Venture Capital firm Endiya Partners is set to launch its third fund for a corpus ranging between $100 million and $125 million to focus on startups within in the digital industry, deep tech, health, software-as-a-service and artificial intelligence (AI).
“We were investing from our Fund II and we will be launching Fund III by March and will be investing from it from the later part of this year, and we will invest in around 18-20 companies,” founding partner Sateesh Andra told Moneycontrol.
At present, the VC firm has two funds and has invested $7-$8 million in startups at growth stages.
“From day one, we are thematic investors. We invested in DarwinBox when SaaS was not even the most sought-after sector…So we possess a unique ability to invest in a thematic fashion that picks up very soon in the market,” Andra said.
Fund III comes at a time when several VC firms have announced doubling down on AI and SaaS sectors.
Just a month ago, alternative investment fund GetVantage set up a Rs 250-crore fund to back SaaS and AI startups.
“We will continue to invest in AI-powered SaaS, semiconductor, or health segment but we are going to double down on the digital industry as a whole,” Andra added.
Founded in 2016, Endiya Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm and has $100-million worth of assets under management.
Presently, the firm is investing from its Fund II to startups in SaaS, information security, semiconductors, healthcare & life sciences, and financial services.
“When we started Endiya, we wanted to focus on B2B and we did not do ecommerce or D2C and more. Even fintech is very little in our portfolio…What we don’t focus on is D2C or e-commerce even with our new fund, we majorly look at product-focussed startups that are looking to go global,” Andra said.
The firm’s portfolio companies include Darwinbox, Cult.fit, Kissht, Sigtuple, Zluri, Qapita, Eyestem, Sugar.fit, Mylo, Scrut Automation, Steradian Semiconductors, Karkinos, Grip Invest, Myelin Foundry and BluJ Aerospace.
Endiya also provides strategic and operational assistance to its portfolio companies including product and market validation, positioning and roadmap, key hires, business and market analysis, customer and partner acquisition, follow-on funding, and governance.
The firm recently announced achieving a near 1X distribution to paid-in capital (DPI) returns on its debut fund and said all its portfolio companies had raised $24 for every $1 invested by Endiya.
“We're not just investors, we're operators. We roll up our sleeves alongside our portfolio companies, providing hands-on support in product development, go-to-market strategies, and talent acquisition,” Andra added.
The hands-on approach has translated into a 75 percent success rate in subsequent funding rounds, significantly surpassing the industry average, he said.
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