ICICI Venture raises $190 mn from Temasek, existing investors

ICICI Venture has raised $190 million (around Rs 1,250 crore) for its fourth private equity fund from Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek Holdings and existing investors to be invested in companies across sectors.

This is the first close for the India Advantage Fund Series 4, under which the PE subsidiary of the country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank is targeting to raise $500 million, company sources said.

It is a sector-agnostic fund and ICICI Venture will invest up to $25-50 million in each company, they said.

A company statement today said the fund raising involved a "significant commitment" from an Asian sovereign wealth fund, which sources identified as Temasek Holdings, which already has private equity operations in the country of its own.

The fund raising, which comes amid significant market volatilities, had been on for the last six months, they added.

The statement said the company, which has $1.7 billion in assets under management in its private equity practice, has raised $845 million from 33 exits across the three funds till now.

It exited its investment in Teamlease during its February IPO and has created "liquidity pathways" in five of the nine investments under the third fund, it said.

"By growing the core practices, our aim is to add more cash reserves that are ready for fresh capital deployment, as opportunities arise," Managing Director and Chief Executive Prashant Purker was quoted as saying in the statement.

He said the company will go for multiple options of exits beyond waiting for capital markets, including secondary deals and strategic sales.