Edelweiss Wealth Management planning to raise $1 bn via pre-IPo funds

Edelweiss Wealth Management (EWM) on Thursday said that it plans to raise $1 billion (Rs 7,500 crore) via its pre-IPO and late-stage Private Equity (PE) focused series of funds.

The Crossover strategy will involve the launch of a series of funds over the next 12-18 months to achieve the stated target of $ 1 billion.

Series III, launched in March earlier this year, recently announced its final close with commitments of over Rs 1,500 crore ($ 200 mn). With this, the Crossover series has raised a total of Rs 3,700 crore ($500 million) across three funds. The team has now launched Crossover Series III A to raise a tleast another Rs 1,500 crore ($200 million) in this strategy. .

Crossover I and II launched in November, 2017 and September, 2018, have built a portfolio of home-grown companies like NSE, Sapphire Foods, Affle, Indiamart, CAMS, Amber, Medplus and other industry leaders across sectors. The funds have delivered benchmark beating returns of 16.2% and 28.7%, respectively, since inception. Additionally, Crossover I has distributed over 60% of the capital raised, having exited part of its portfolio, it said.

“The private market has largely been inaccessible to many of our Indian HNI and family office customers who are looking to invest in fundamentally strong companies with proven business models. At the same time, many of these companies preparing to go public need to raise funds to deleverage their balance sheet or make up for PE investor exits. Crossover as a strategy aims to bridge this gap. We provide quality Indian capital to fund home-grown companies with extensive domestic and global ambitions on their way to IPO. For an investor, the strategy offers attractive entry valuations with an imminent exit via public markets, thereby mitigating the risk involved in unlisted securities," said Anshu Kapoor, president & head, Investment Management, Edelweiss Wealth Management.

Pranav Parikh, managing partner, PE, Edelweiss Wealth Management said, “It’s truly an exciting time for entrepreneurial activity in this country with emergence of high quality new age businesses that are defining the new paradigm. At Crossover, we are proud to align and partner with such current and emerging leaders as they build sustainable large entreprises. Our ambition and scale of our funds mirrors this opportutnity in front of us and we are committed to deliver high risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”