150 year-old Allana Group invests $10 mn in Iron Pillar Fund II

The corpus would enable Iron Pillar portfolio companies to expand globally

Technology-focused venture capital firm Iron Pillar has received an investment of $10 million from Allana Group in its Fund II. The 150-year-old group has manufacturing and distribution in 20 countries and has market leadership in oils, proteins, several FMCG brands and agri products.

In 2017, the Group set up a corporate venture arm and has since made investments in e-commerce, grocery products, challenger brands, media and healthcare. The Group specialises in consumer industries with a strong focus on ASEAN, MENA and India. Adil Allana, Supervisory Board member of the Group, will join Iron Pillar as a Board Partner.

“We have an existing relationship with Adil and Allana Group through their investment in FreshToHome, where they have added significant value to the company in operations and international expansion,” said  Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar. “This is the logical next step for us to take our fruitful partnership forward to support many more of our portfolio companies. As we continue to build Iron Pillar, we look forward to collaborating with more large Indian and global business groups who can help our portfolio companies improve their operations and expand across the US, Middle East and Asia Pacific.”

Iron Pillar also added three senior professionals to its investment team. Sajid Fazalbhoy, previously with Blume Ventures, has joined Iron Pillar as Partner. Pavan Gupte, with more than twenty years of alternative investments experience with firms like CVCI, KKR and Hermes GPE has joined as a Board Partner. Rahul Garg, previously with Kalaari Capital and Lehman Brothers, has joined as Principal.

Iron Pillar’s portfolio includes technology companies like Uniphore, FreshtoHome, Servify and CoreStack that are built from India for Indian and global markets. In 2020, Iron Pillar has also set up ‘Iron Pillar Network’, a stellar line up of senior technology executives from companies and institutions like Amazon, Bertelsman, Google, SAP, to help its portfolio companies expand globally.