New Delhi, July 20 -- Mumbai-based venture capital firm Campus Fund has secured a commitment from a key domestic limited partner (LP) for its third investment vehicle that aims to raise as much as Rs 850 crore ($88.2 million), VCCircle has gathered.
The VC firm, which invests exclusively in startups led by students and college dropouts, has collected Rs 65 crore from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) through the state-run institution's Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) programme.
SIDBI is a returning limited partner in Campus Fund. It committed Rs 18.75 crore to the firm's second investment vehicle through its FFS programme.
Campus Fund marked the first close of the third fund last year after securing commitments for more than half of the target corpus.
Founded by entrepreneur Richa Bajpai, Campus Fund invests exclusively in startups founded by university students, college dropouts or entrepreneurs within three years of completing graduation. The third fund plans to back around 60 startups over the next four years, writing initial cheques of Rs 1-8 crore while reserving about half the corpus for follow-on investments.
The firm raised its first fund in July 2020, collecting Rs 7 crore. It raised its second fund in July 2022 and mopped up Rs 75 crore (equivalent to $10 million then).
The VC firm's portfolio includes startups such as Expand My Business, Digantara, EtherealX, Sama, D-Nome, Sarla Aviation and GreenGrahi. Several of these companies have subsequently raised capital from investors including Peak XV Partners, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Alpha Wave Global and DST Global.
Fund III has also attracted commitments from family offices, entrepreneurs, industrialists and financial institutions, including 360 ONE. Its limited partners include Fireside Ventures founder Kanwaljit Singh, HDFC Bank co-founder Bharat Shah, former Kotak Mahindra Bank Group CFO Jaimin Bhatt, early Google investor Asha Jadeja Motwani,, and Deutsche Bank's global forex head Sameen Farooqui.
Meanwhile, SIDBI has been among the most active domestic institutional backers of venture capital funds through its FFS programme. In recent months, it has committed capital to several investment vehicles, including Blume Ventures's Fund V, Alteria Capital's Fund III, Athera Fund IV, Avaana Sustainability Fund, Cornerstone Ventures Enterprise Tech Fund II, and Chiratae Ventures' Fund V.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.