New Delhi, April 9 -- Mumbai-based investment firm Bay Capital Partners has appointed partners for its newly launched Digital Opportunities Fund, which will invest in late-stage digital and technology firms in India.

The fund marks the firm's foray into category II alternative investments and, to oversee its investments, Bay Capital has appointed former executive director and business head of Delhivery Sandeep Barasia and Tej Kapoor as partners.

Barasia has over 25 years of experience, including serving as a partner at Bain & Co and as a board member at companies such as Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej Nature's Basket, Oberoi Hotels and IndiaMart.

Kapoor has two decades of experience leading the investment team at the global technology investment firm Naspers and served as the country head at Fosun International. He was also managing partner at IvyCap Ventures and director/partner at ICICI Ventures.

Fund details

The fund, which will invest in 10-15 public and private companies, will focus on "high-quality, late-stage digital businesses" to enable founders during their next phase of growth, according to Bay Capital's statement.

Siddharth Mehta, chief investment officer and founder of Bay Capital Partners, said that backing companies such as PolicyBazaar, Lenskart, CarTrade and Ixigo as they scaled up to become into market leaders strengthened the investment firm's conviction in India's digital economy. He added, "The India Digital Opportunities Fund reflects this conviction - a dedicated platform to back the next generation of exceptional founders."

Bay Capital refused to divulge the targeted size of the new fund, stating they were in the "early stages" of the fundraise and that sharing a specific target would be "premature" to share at the current juncture.

"What we can say is that the fund is sized appropriately for a concentrated, high-conviction strategy - one that allows us to back 10 to 15 exceptional businesses with meaningful capital and deep partnership. We will share more details at the appropriate stage of the fundraising process," Bay Capital told VCCircle.

Bay Capital currently manages the Bay Capital India Leaders Fund, a SEBI-registered Category III AIF focused on long-only public market investments. The firm counts university endowments, pension funds and foundations among its long-term limited partners.

Bay Capital refused to divulge its fund performance statistics, adding that it was "proud" of the returns generated for their limited partners from investments in PolicyBazaar, Lenskart, CarTrade Tech and Ixigo.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.