Mumbai-headquartered venture capital firm BLinC Invest announced the launch of a ₹100-crore SEBI registered Category-II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) and its first close of ₹30 crore. The fund will achieve its final close before the year-end.

An AIF is any fund established or incorporated in India which is a privately pooled investment vehicle that collects funds from sophisticated investors, whether Indian or foreign, for investing in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of its investors.

Amit Ratanpal, founder and MD of BLinC Invest , said, “We are thrilled to launch BLinC Fund II. We are inspired by the support we have received from our investors who share our belief that there is immense potential in investing in early-stage companies that harness the power of technology in the education and financial services businesses that are backbone sectors of any global economy.”

BLinc II will invest in edtech and fintech companies that have stable management teams, reasonable traction with market validation, huge market opportunity in India and potential to scale globally. Investee companies will positively impact 5 million learners and 10 million users in the edtech and fintech sectors respectively.

BLinc Fund II builds on the success of its high performing proprietary fund, founded in 2014, which invested in four companies — 1crowd, Imarticus Learning, Genext Students, and Eduvanz Financing — with an average investment of ₹5 crore. The fund returned 4.5 times on the back of successful exits from 1crowd through a secondary transaction, and from Eduvanz through stake sale to large VC firms.

‘BLinC has a unique co-founder approach and works very closely with the management team of the portfolio companies,’ said RK Rangan, Chairman and Partner of BLinc Invest. ‘While all our investments will be backed by a detailed primary market research and investment opportunity report, we will also pay close attention to the founding team to ensure a shared value system. We want to help build great companies in a space that we think is the lynchpin of future economic growth. And to aid that razor sharp focus, the fund will have a very concentrated portfolio of 5-7 companies.”

With combined experience of over 60 years, the Blinc Invest team has collectively founded 8 businesses, invested over ₹300 crores in 25 companies, and had 8 successful exits.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW