Lok Capital to raise $100 mn; to invest in health, agri cos

Investment fund Lok Capital today said it aims to raise a corpus of about USD 100 million (about Rs 673.4 crore) to invest in growth-stage companies in India across sectors like financial inclusion, healthcare and agriculture.
The fund also announced the first close of its Lok Fund III at USD 40.5 million.
So far, the entity's total capital under management (including Fund I and Fund II) stands at over USD 125 million.
"Existing LPs - CDC Group Plc (the Development Finance Institution of the UK), Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden NV's and Societe de Promotion et de Participation pour la Cooperation Economique have participated in this funding round," it said in a statement.

TIAA Global Asset Management has also come on board, providing a new source of capital for Fund III, it added.
"Fund III has a total target corpus of around USD 100 million and is expected to close in the next 12-18 months," it added.

The fund will be deployed in the next five years and will focus on growth stage investments in financial services, healthcare, agriculture and livelihood, it added.
The average tranche per investment will range between USD 2-10 million and Lok Capital will collaborate with limited partners (LPs) for joint investment in larger deals.
Lok's portfolio companies include Equitas Holdings, Suryoday Microfinance, Ujjivan Financial Services and Utkarsh Micro Finance.

"Fund III will also focus on other emerging models in financial services such as SME finance, affordable housing finance and digital/tech-enabled financing," it said.
In healthcare, the areas of interest include delivery of affordable healthcare, devices and diagnostics, while that in agriculture sector includes dairy, supply chain management and integrated farm-to-fork models.
In January 2016, Lok invested in Pune-based Siddhivinayak (SV) Agri Processing.
"Aided with the government initiatives from the last few years along with very progressive regulatory environment, the climate is ripe in India for deepening financial inclusion through both traditional business models as well as through fin-tech models," Lok Capital Managing Partner Venky Natarajan said.