Bengaluru-based early stage fund, Prime Venture Partners, on Wednesday announced the close of its third fund at Rs 400 crore (around $60 million). Prime will continue to focus on making concentrated investments with high support, maintaining its deep involvement model. The key investment sectors which the fund focuses on are Digital India, Fintech/Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, Logistics and Global SaaS solutions.
Founded in 2011, Prime has had a rich track record of investing in early stage technology startups in India and it has always focussed on companies that have an innovative approach to solving fundamental problems through technology. Previously, Prime had raised its first fund of $8 million in 2012, and Fund 2 of $46 million in 2015. It was the first investor in ZipDial, a missed-call based startup that was acquired by Twitter in 2015, and Ezetap, a mobile payments company that has since raised about $50 million in follow-on capital and is a leading provider of enterprise-grade payment acceptance solutions in India.
Prime is typically the first institutional investor in a startup. The firm follows a distinctive model of being highly selective and invests in only 3-5 companies per year, only after building deep conviction in entrepreneurs and their startups through a rapid yet thorough diligence process. A common theme among Prime portfolio companies is strong product and tech teams with unique insights and an ability to rapidly iterate. Portfolio companies work closely with all partners during the formative phase of the business, helping fine-tune all aspects of the company. The firm actively supports entrepreneurs with business and product strategy, refining operating metrics, hiring, partnerships, marketing, finance, all the way through raising subsequent capital.
While most of Prime’s portfolio companies are focussed on the booming Digital India opportunity, Prime also has several companies that target the US, Middle-East and other International markets, or that initially start in India and expand from India to other geographies. Most of these companies have gone on to raise strong follow-on rounds of investment from other leading Venture Capital firms in India, Silicon Valley and Asia.
Prime has three key areas of focus for investment:
Fintech & Financial Services: Ezetap (2010 - enterprise payments), SmartOwner (2012 - Real-Estate Financial Services), Moneytap (2015 - App based consumer credit line), AffordPlan (2016 - HealthCare Financial Services).
SaaS & Enterprise Solutions: HackerEarth (2014 - innovation management platform), Synup (2015 - digital marketing solutions), myGate (2017 - Gated Community Security).
HealthCare & Education: AffordPlan (2016- at intersection of Fintech and Healthcare), Maya (Women’s reproductive health).
Sanjay Swamy, co-founder & managing partner, Prime Venture Partners said, “Digital India is exploding; there has never been a more exciting time to be an entrepreneur in India. We are privileged to partner with amazing entrepreneurs who are building some of the most exciting emerging companies in India. We are also grateful for the fantastic support from our existing Limited Partners (LPs) and delighted to welcome some amazing new long-term LPs to our journey.”
Prime Venture Partners was founded in 2011 and is led by serial entrepreneurs Sanjay Swamy, Shripati Acharya and Amit Somani along with partner emeritus, Raj Mashruwala.