Elevation Capital raises its largest India fund worth $670 million
- ByStartupStory | April 8, 2022
On April 8th,2022, Elevation Capital, which has backed the likes of Swiggy, Meesho, Paytm and Unacademy said that it has closed its latest fund with a corpus of worth $670 million, its largest fund for India till date. Apart from emerging themes such as Web3 and cryptocurrency, it will invest in sectors such as consumer internet, fintech, SaaS. At a time when investors have turned more cautious, amid questions on sky high valuations and a rout in new age technology stocks, the new fund came in.
Barely a year after its last fund, to hold ground in a fiercely competitive market, in December 2021, Elevation’s plans to raise a $600 million fund. Elevation (previously known as SAIF partners) has invested almost $2 billion of capital in over 150 companies across seven funds, over the past two decades, with 13 early-stage investments becoming unicorns.
One of the largest India-focused venture platforms Elevation’s $670 million Fund VIII, to date, which will allow it to make a larger initial investment and will also support them in the growth stages as well.
Of the funding boom, it has been one of the biggest beneficiaries. Its portfolio has seen six unicorns – start-ups valued at over $1 billion, created in 2021 alone such as home services provider Urban Company, real estate portal NoBroker, social media firm ShareChat and Meesho, and online car-buying app Spinny and Acko Insurance. Its stakes are worth over $1.5 billion, almost four times the size of its last fund in Swiggy, ShareChat, Meesho, and Urban Company alone.
Elevation has been among the more prolific private investors in India and an early backer of fintech firm Paytm, most notably. Elevation stands to make over a 100 times what it invested in the company, despite Paytm’s lacklustre listing. With its total stake worth over a billion dollars, it has already cashed out a few hundred million dollars.
In the previous years, especially compared with peers such as Sequoia and Lightspeed, Elevation’s strategy was seen as cautious and measured. But it stepped up deal-making in 2021, more than double what it did in previous years, with over 35 investments so far this year. These include blue collar networking platform Anar, teenage neobank Fampay, and spirituality app AppsForBharat.
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