Early-stage VC firm 8i Ventures scores 12X return on M2P Fintech exit

8i Ventures, an early-stage focused venture capital (VC) firm, has completed a full exit from its investment in M2P Fintech, thus booking a 12x return on its original investment of Rs 9.7 crore. The venture capital firm made the exit as part of M2P’s recent $100 million capital raise.

“We were the first institutional VC in M2P,” said Vikram Chachra, Founding Partner, 8i Ventures. “We wrote that check in January 2020, had one partial exit in 2022, then exited the balance now, so the total exit value is Rs 115.9 crore. That’s a MOIC (Multiple on invested capital) of about 12 times and an IRR (internal rate of return) of 131 per cent.”

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The fintech startup’s evolution from a card-issuing platform to a broader banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider helped drive the returns, stated Chachra. “M2P has evolved from enabling neo-banks like Slice to now powering the entire core banking system for small finance banks in India,” he said. “Today, it’s a full-fledged platform doing everything from core banking, card issuing, loan origination, and so on.”

The investment was made through 8i Ventures’ debut fund, Fund I, which launched in 2019 with a corpus of Rs 97 crore. Using 10 per cent of the fund’s capital on the M2P investment, the exit has generated 1.27 times the total corpus of the fund.

8i Ventures’ portfolio includes companies such as Blue Tokai, Slice, and Easebuzz, which are poised for further growth and potential IPOs in the coming years. Its second fund launched at $50 million, achieved a first close of $25 million, securing 50 per cent of its targeted assets under management.

“India has a lot of first-generation founders who require more not just capital but some hand-holding in the early stages,” Chachra added that there is a gap in guidance on things like building a team, operating metrics, and securing follow-on funding.