Prime Venture Partners, an early stage fund, announced the close of its third fund at Rs. 400 crore for investment in key sectors including Digital India, fintech/financial services, healthcare, education, logistics and global SaaS solutions.
Previously, Prime had raised its first fund of USD 8 million in 2012, and a USD 46 million Fund 2 was raised in 2015. It was the first investor in ZipDial, a missed-call based startup that was acquired by Twitter in 2015, and Ezetap, a mobile payments company that has since raised about USD 50 million in follow-on capital and is a provider of enterprise-grade payment acceptance solutions in India.
Prime is typically the first institutional investor in a startup. The firm follows a distinctive model of being highly selective and invests in only three to five companies per year, only after building deep conviction in entrepreneurs and their startups through a rapid yet thorough diligence process. A common theme among Prime portfolio companies is strong product and tech teams with unique insights and an ability to rapidly iterate.
Portfolio companies work closely with all partners during the formative phase of the business, helping fine-tune all aspects of the company. The firm actively supports entrepreneurs with business and product strategy, refining operating metrics, hiring, partnerships, marketing, finance, all the way through raising subsequent capital.
While most of Prime's portfolio companies are focussed on the booming Digital India opportunity,
Prime also has several companies that target the US, Middle-East and other International markets, or that initially start in India and expand from India to other geographies. Most of these companies have gone on to raise strong follow-on rounds of investment from other leading Venture Capital firms in India, Silicon Valley and Asia.
"Digital India is exploding; there has never been a more exciting time to be an entrepreneur in India. We are privileged to partner with amazing entrepreneurs who are building some of the most exciting emerging companies in India. We are also grateful for the fantastic support from our existing Limited Partners (LPs) and delighted to welcome some amazing new long-term LPs to our journey," said co-founder and managing partner of Prime Venture Partners, Sanjay Swamy.
"The quality of technology entrepreneurship in India is growing non-linearly. It is driven by the fact that several employees of the first wave of tech startups have the maturity and exposure to solving problems at scale and are now turning entrepreneurs themselves," added Amit Somani, managing partner, Prime Venture Partners.
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