VC firm Piper Serica marks first close of Rs 800 crore Bharat Tech fund

The venture capital firm has secured Rs 300 crore in commitments and plans to back 21-22 engineering-led fintech and deep-tech companies at the Series A and select Series B stages

Venture capital firm Piper Serica has marked the first close of its Rs 800 crore Bharat Tech Fund, the firm’s investment director Ajay Modi told Business Standard. The fund has secured commitments of Rs 300 crore in the first close.

 

The fund, which has a target corpus of Rs 600 crore along with a Rs 200 crore greenshoe option, comes after the firm’s angel fund which was launched in 2022. The tech fund has not yet made any investments as it is awaiting its first close, Modi said.

 

According to Modi, the fund has received interest from existing limited partners (LPs) on the back of strong performance of the first fund, which has delivered an internal rate of return (IRR) of about 44 per cent without any write-offs so far.

 

The LP base for the first close is expected to comprise largely high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) and ultra-HNIs, along with commitments from family offices. Over time, the fund aims to build a diversified investor mix comprising 50 per cent HNIs, 20 per cent family offices, and 30 per cent institutional investors.

 

The new fund will focus on engineering-led technology companies spanning hardware, firmware and software, with investments concentrated in fintech and deep-tech sectors. While the angel fund primarily backed companies at the seed stage as their first institutional investor, the new fund will target Series A and select Series B opportunities.

 

"We continue to believe India's biggest opportunity lies in companies building difficult technologies rather than pure software businesses," Modi said. The firm expects to invest in around 21-22 companies through the new vehicle, with average cheque sizes ranging between Rs 25 crore and Rs 50 crore.

 

Its maiden angel fund, which raised Rs 273 crore in 2022, has invested in 33 startups with an average ticket size of around Rs 9 crore. The fund is nearly fully deployed, with roughly Rs 10 crore remaining for follow-on investments.

 

Modi said that while the country’s deep-tech ecosystem is maturing, the biggest challenge remains the availability of experienced engineering talent in specialised fields such as Radio Frequency (RF) systems, sensing, and semiconductor validation. However, he expressed optimism that government efforts to improve the intellectual property ecosystem and patent approval process would support the next generation of deep-tech companies.