New Delhi, July 28 -- Early-stage venture capital firm Inflexor Ventures has secured Rs 400 crore (around $42 million) in the first close of its third fund, which targets a corpus of Rs 1,250 crore (nearly $131 million) to back science, engineering and technology-led startups.
The Inflexor Technology Discovery Fund is anchored by the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund, HDFC Asset Management Company (HDFC AMC) and HDFC AMC Select AIF Fund of Funds, with participation from international institutional investors. The firm did not disclose the identities of the overseas investors.
The fund will invest primarily in pre-Series A and Series A startups, writing initial cheques of Rs 15-45 crore (around $1.6-4.7 million) and building a portfolio of 22-25 companies. It has already begun deploying capital and expects to announce its first investments in the coming weeks.
"India's innovation ecosystem has reached an inflection point. We're seeing a growing pipeline of globally ambitious companies built on differentiated science, engineering and technology," Venkat Vallabhaneni, founder and managing director of Inflexor Ventures, said.
Fund strategy
Founded by Vallabhaneni, Jatin Desai and Pratip Mazumdar, Inflexor focuses on early stage technology startups across sectors and currently manages about Rs 1,300 crore in assets.
The new vehicle builds on Inflexor's first two funds, launched in 2016 and 2021, respectively. While the firm will remain sector-agnostic, Fund III will place greater emphasis on Series A opportunities as more Indian startups achieve early product-market fit and expand globally.
The firm's debut fund, launched in 2016, invested in companies such as Atomberg Technologies, PlayShifu, Kale Logistics Solutions and Bellatrix Aerospace. In 2021, Inflexor launched its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 350 crore and a greenshoe option, continuing its focus on pre-Series A and Series A investments.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.