UK Govt Owned CDC Group Commits $10 Mn to Chiratae Venure's Fund IV the publicly-owned CDC group is known for supporting sustainable, long-term growth of businesses in South Asia and Africa. It has investments in over 1,200 businesses, with the total portfolio value of USD 6.87 billion
By Shipra Singh
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Chiratae Ventures, backer of prominent startups such as Cure.fit, Lenskart and Policybazaar, has raised USD 10 million from UK-based publicly-owned impact investor CDC Group for its fourth fund.
Since its launch in 2006, the Bengaluru-based early and expansion stage VC firm has deployed about USD 700 million in 85 startups across consumer, fintech, healthtech and software/Saas categories. So far, Chiratae has booked over 35 exit transactions, which includes Flipkart and Lenskart.
Chiratae's fourth fund will focus primarily on early stage investments but have the flexibility to invest at seed and expansion stages, backing companies in deep-tech, consumer media and tech, software, fintech and health tech.
"The firm targets companies whose technologically disruptive solutions and scale-up potential can reach large parts of the Indian population, helping to increase economic opportunities and market participation for the next 400 million Indian consumers, employees, and suppliers," the company said in a statement.
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Chiratae Ventures, erstwhile known as IDG Ventures, has backed market leaders companies like fitness brand Cure.Fit, bike rental startup Bounce, baby product's e-commerce platform FirstCry, Myntra(acquired by Flipkart), AI startup Uniphore, eyewear solutions firm Lenskart, health and fitness startup HealthifyMe, agritech startup Cropin and insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar.
CDC said that the commitment falls under its South Asia Venture Scale-up programme, which aims to invest in early-stage companies that leverage technology and innovative business models to achieve transformational impact at scale.
"Committing to Chiratae is part of our strategy to back tech-enabled businesses that have the potential to address development challenges in sectors such as food & agriculture, healthcare, and education to reduce costs, improve market access and economic participation," said Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia, CDC Group.
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The 70-year-old UK government-funded firm is known for supporting sustainable, long-term growth of businesses in South Asia and Africa. It has investments in over 1,200 businesses, with the total portfolio value of USD 6.87 billion (£5.8billion).
CDC said that it will invest over USD1.5bn in companies in Africa and Asia with a focus on fighting climate change, empowering women and creating new jobs and opportunities for millions of people.
