New Delhi, July 23 -- Fast-moving consumer goods conglomerate ITC Ltd has expanded its Limited Partner (LP) portfolio as it invested in a venture debt fund and a venture capital fund that targets startups developing artificial intelligence technologies.

The Kolkata-headquartered company also recorded a 31.2% jump in the value of its LP portfolio during the year through March 2026 to Rs 174.2 crore ($18 million) from Rs 132.8 crore the previous year. The sharp rise follows a modest gain of 8.9% in FY25 and 2.3% in FY24, per a VCCircle analysis of publicly disclosed information.

Overall, the value of ITC's LP portfolio has doubled in the last five years and more than 20 times since FY18, when it backed consumer-focused VC firm Fireside Ventures' maiden fund in its first LP-style investment.

The cigarettes-to-biscuits maker added more funds to its LP portfolio in subsequent years, backing VC firms that either focused mainly on consumer brands or those that invested in consumer and consumer-tech startups.

ITC added Fireside's second fund and Chiratae Ventures' fourth vehicle to its basket in FY20. It backed the maiden funds of consumer-tech VC firm Multiply Ventures and Roots Ventures in FY22. It added Fireside's third vehicle to its portfolio the following year and Avaana Capital's sustainability-focused fund in FY25.

In FY26, the conglomerate came in as an LP in Stride Ventures' fourth venture debt fund and the second vehicle of Together Fund, a VC firm started in 2021 by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham and Eka Software founder Manav Garg to make seed and Series A investments in startups building AI applications in the US-India corridor.

Stride Ventures launched its fourth fund in December 2024 with an aim to raise over Rs 2,500 crore while Together Fund rolled out its second vehicle in 2023 with a target corpus of $150 million.

Meanwhile, ITC has been fairly quiet on its direct investments in the consumer sector since April last year when it agreed to take full control of Mother Sparsh Baby Care Pvt Ltd, a premium ayurvedic and natural baby care direct-to-consumer (D2C) company, and acquired 24 Mantra Organic in a deal that provided an exit to private equity firm Peepul Capital and venture capital firm Ventureast.

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