Early-stage venture capital firm Ankur Capital is doubling down on tech-driven disruptions in the B2B space, fuelled by digitisation and decarbonisation trends, noted Ritu Verma, co-founder and Managing Partner at Ankur Capital.
“These overlooked areas offer an opportunity to invest early and realise high returns as they get repriced in the market,” she said
Founded in 2014, the Mumbai-based fund invests in transformative technologies, with a focus on digitisation, science and technology, which addresses inefficiencies in the process across sectors. The company’s portfolio includes Captain Fresh, StringBio, Offgrid, Vegrow, Niramai and others.
“At Ankur about 30 per cent of our portfolio companies have expanded beyond India, indicating potential for global market relevance,” she added.
Firm’s current portfolio
The current portfolio has over 30 companies spanning agritech, climate tech, deep tech, and tech-driven solutions in education, infrastructure and finance. These sectors align with Ankur’s investment thesis, which emphasises identifying and backing companies operating in fundamental structural markets that often go overlooked but possess immense potential.
“We like to support early themes. For example, we were one of the first investors in technologies addressing agriculture, deep science and high IP, addressing critical problems such as food, energy and health,” said Verma.
The firm that manages $100 million AUM focused on early stage bets, is currently deploying from its third fund. It aims to raise a target corpus of ₹1,200 crore (about $150 million).
The firm’s investment strategy is characterised by a strong focus on early-stage funding, typically pre-Series A, with initial cheque sizes ranging from ₹ 6-15 crore. It also follows up on its investments, with the ability to commit up to $10 million to successful portfolio companies.
“We have historically invested heavily in agritech, climate and deep science companies and continue to be bullish about these areas. We also will look to expand into some newer spaces as they emerge as there are large opportunities for companies to build products on the new data, both digital and hardware-led, that is emerging,” Verma added.
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