Elevation Capital launches $400 million late-stage fund to back IPO-bound startups

Elevation Capital, known for backing Paytm, Swiggy, meesho, and Urban Company, is launching a new $400M fund called Elevation Holdings. 

Unlike its usual early-stage focus, this fund will make long-term bets on 10–15 companies headed for public markets, with investments of $20M–$50M each.

This move comes as Indian venture capital undergoes a reset, with private growth funding drying up and startups turning to public markets for scale and liquidity.

Read also- Dream Sports-Owned FanCode To Shut Sports Merchandise Business

Co-managing partner Mukul Arora said the new fund will mainly back tech-driven companies in consumer and financial services. He added that Elevation Holdings is not like the usual growth funds many VC firms have launched in recent years.

“Our horizons for investments are much longer and we will hold long enough to be considered permanent holders of the stock. We also have the flexibility in terms of having a non-intrusive cheque size for a company of that scale,” said Mridul Arora, partner, Elevation Capital.

“Also, while these investments are at a late stage, we are bringing our venture DNA to the fore. For a lot of founders at that stage, a lot of interactions are with typical public market investors, a lot of whom are worried about the next quarter or the next year. But we would be great partners to think about the longer term,” he added.

Advertisment

Accel and Peak XV (earlier Sequoia India) run separate growth funds to support mature companies.

Similarly, Elevation Holdings will work alongside its $670M Fund VIII, which continues to focus on early-stage startups with investments of $2–5M.

“There is now greater confidence in the fundamentals of the companies getting created. If you look at traditional Indian businesses from the last few decades like Asian Paints, HDFC Bank or Titan, they have compounded year after year, decade after decade…this is for the first time, we feel that there are some companies in our technology ecosystem that can reach that level of maturity,” Mukul Arora said.

Elevation Holdings will target companies within three years of going public that are already profitable or close to it. Its first bet is on used-car marketplace spinny.

Mukul Arora noted the fund isn’t restricted to Elevation’s existing portfolio and may also back external startups.

Mridul Arora added that firms like Meesho, Swiggy, and Urban Company would have been strong candidates if this fund had existed earlier. He said Elevation Holdings could invest through primary or secondary deals, including buying employee stock options.

Advertisment