Pentathlon Ventures Initiates $54.4 Million Fund II for Early-Stage B2B SaaS Investments
- ByStartupStory | September 5, 2023
Pune-based venture capital firm Pentathlon Ventures has commenced the process of raising its second fund, aiming to secure a corpus of Rs 450 crore (approximately $54.4 million). The firm, with a primary focus on investing in business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies at the early stages, plans to allocate these funds to support 25 startups in their initial phases.
Pentathlon Ventures is actively soliciting capital from both domestic and international limited partners, including prominent business figures, corporate entities, and institutions. Their investment horizon spans from the pre-seed stage to Series A deals.
The firm intends to deploy these funds into various sectors within the B2B SaaS space, such as enterprise digital transformation, e-commerce enablement, fintech, vertical SaaS, applied AI, sustainable tech, and health tech.
“The revenues coming from India-based B2B startups are expected to grow 25X in the next eight years. With an impressive 50% faster time to revenue, better revenue predictability, and solid gross margins ranging between 70-80%, it presents extraordinary prospects of building sustainable businesses,” said Pentathlon managing partner Sandeep Chawda.
Founded in 2020, Pentathlon Ventures raised $10 million for its debut fund, which was subsequently invested in 23 startups. Some of the notable companies in its portfolio include ShopSe, Riskovry, Fable Fintech, SaleAssist, Resolve, Doqfy, QuickReply, and SellerGeni.
Pentathlon boasts a board that comprises individuals with extensive expertise in the industry, including Gireendra Kasmalkar of Ideas to Impacts, Sandeep Chawda (former MD of Globant India), Madhukar Bhatia and Hemant Joshi (co-founders of Sapience Analytics), Shashank Deshpande of Clarice Technologies, and Saurabh Lahoti, who has been associated with three early-stage funds.
In addition to its investment activities, Pentathlon also manages the GTMDialogues program, aimed at establishing a community of SaaS founders and go-to-market leaders. This initiative focuses on providing mentorship and guidance on various entrepreneurial aspects, including go-to-market strategies, product distribution, and user acquisition.
“A couple of decades back, India was known for offshore IT services. Later, B2C startups gained prominence because of India’s population/consumption story. Today, Indian B2B startups are on their way to becoming global leaders within this decade. Add to this the tailwinds from the global focus moving to India,” said managing partner Gireendra Kasmalkar.
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