Seafund aims to raise 1200 cr by end ’24
K Amoghavarsha kamoghavarshagivemint.com BENGALURU
Early-stage venture capital firm Seafund expects to finish an ongoing exercise to raise its second fund by the end of next year even as it chases technology startups in a variety of domains, a top executive told VCCircle. The VC firm, which was founded in 2015, launched its second fund in 2022 and marked the first close within three months of its launch at INR 30 crore. It aims to hit a second close above INR 125 crore by March 2024 before the final close later in the year, said Mayuresh Raut, Co-Founder and Managing Partner.
The fund has a target corpus of INR 200 crore ($24 million) and an additional greenshoe option of INR 50 crore. Raut, who founded the VC firm along with Manoj Kumar Agarwal, said the VC firm made the first close of the new fund soon after receiving approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
“The reason was we had some deals which we did not want to warehouse. So, we marked the first close at INR 30 crore, which is the SEBI-mandated minimum corpus” he said.
Seafund’s limited partners (LP) for the second fund include institutional investors and family offices from India as well as the Middle East along with high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). One of its LPs is the state-run Kerala Startup Mission. Raut said the fund will look to invest $250,000-$750,000 in startups as the first cheque. Additionally, the firm intends to invest around $1.0-3.5 million across two or three follow-on rounds in its portfolio companies.
In terms of sectoral exposure, Raut said the new fund will create a portfolio in which 30-40% of the startups are in the deeptech space.
“Deeptech has gained prominence. The founders were always ready, but the investors were not ready and the markets were not conducive as well. The alignment that has happened at the geo-political level did play into the hands of a large gestation business like deeptech,” said Raut. The fund has made five investments so far. It counts Docker Vision, Redwing and Swapp in its portfolio.
“From the second fund, we’ve gone out and made investments in the EV value chain, drone logistics and we are also contemplating making at least one, if not two, investments in the semiconductor space,” he said.