35North Ventures Raises INR 100 Crore in First Phase of India Discovery Fund II The fund will target companies with scalable business models in sectors like energy, consumer brands, fintech, and defense. The average investment size will range between INR 5–10 crore, spread across 30–40 companies.

Mumbai-based early-stage investor 35North Ventures has successfully raised INR 100 crore in the first phase of its newly launched CAT-1 AIF India Discovery Fund II.

This fund is a successor to 35North's first CAT-I AIF, which had a total corpus of INR 500 crore plus an additional INR 100 crore greenshoe option.

Milan Sharma, Founder and MD, 35North Ventures, said, "We have closed subscriptions for India Discovery Fund-I with over INR 130 crore in March this year. The investment theme in the India Discovery Fund-II will be similar to the IDF-I. 35North has invested in 16 companies across 10 sectors, mostly across pre-Series A rounds. We will be investing in a few more businesses around the same thesis.".

Sunil Gurbaxani, the former CEO of Dhan Laxmi Bank and now a partner at 35North Ventures, will serve as the fund manager. The fund has already secured commitments of about INR 100 crore from a mix of high-net-worth individuals in India and abroad, along with corporate family offices in India.

Garbaxani said, "Post the inception of our second fund in June this year, our focus will be on companies with scalable business models and foreseeable growth. It seeks to provide growth capital to companies across categories such as energy, consumer brands, fintech, and defense, amongst others. The average cheque size would be in the range of INR 5–10 crore across 30–40 companies, given the large corpus."

Since its founding in 2021, 35North Ventures has focused on asset-light, tech-enabled business models, with investments in companies like CloudTailor, SpeEdLabs, Big Bang Boom, New Space Research and Technology, Explurger, and Stupa Sports Analytics, among others.