IFC to invest $10 mn in Endiya Partners Fund II for product start-ups

Endiya Partners Fund II, a city-based venture capital fund has received a commitment of Rs 75 crore ($10M approx.) from the International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the company said on Monday.

IFC has also committed an additional $10 million for direct co-investments alongside Endiya Fund II, it said in a press release.

"Early Stage VC investment volumes in India are markedly lower than VC volumes in countrieslike the U.S. and China. Our investment in VC funds like Endiya helps mobilize capital from other LPs and brings that capital to path breaking early stage businesses. Endiya Partners has demonstrateddifferentiation in access to high-qualityPre- Series A opportunitiesin Enterprise Technology and Healthtech sectors," Jun Zhang, IFC Country Head, India said.

Endiya Partners is a seed and early-stageventure capital firm investing in IP-led Indian product start-ups that are globally relevant.

Endiya Fund II has a corpus target of Rs 500 crore ($65 million) and has already completed its first close at Rs 280 crore ($40 million) in May 2019.

Endiya Fund II will seek to invest in 16 - 20 start-ups, with an initial cheque size of $ 500,000 to $ one million in Seed/Pre-series A rounds and a planned investment of up to $5 million per company.

"We are excited to have won IFCs support and backing. We value IFC's vast global presence across geographies that could offer future expansion markets for our portfolio companies. We are also delighted to have a co-investment envelope from IFC that could be used to support our investees as they scale,"saidSateesh Andra, partner at Endiya Partners.

Endiya's Fund I was a 2016 vintage fund with Rs 175 crore ($25 million) corpus and invested in 12 portfolio companies.