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[Funding alert] Venture capital firm Speciale Invest raises Rs 286 crore

By Viestories
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Venture capital firm Speciale Invest
Venture capital firm Speciale Invest

Speciale Invest, an early-stage venture capital firm has raised Rs 286 crore towards the final close of its second fund.

A senior executive said the firm is looking to support over 20 companies through pre-seed and seed rounds. Last year, Speciale Invest Continuity Fund I had first-round close at rs 140 cr.

In 2018, the firm raised its first Rs 60 crore fund through which it supported around 18 companies.

The Chennai-based firm was founded in 2017 by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, Speciale Invest backs companies creating disruptive technologies in the areas of Software as a Service. These include developer tools and frontier technologies including climate, advanced materials, space technology, robotics, photonics, and alternative energy, among others.

“This is a great validation for our thesis of building deep tech and global SaaS out of India. With a larger fund, we will be able to back our portfolio companies a little longer with follow-on commits and will help us play a more meaningful role,” said, Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner, Speciale Invest.

“We can follow on with three dollars for every dollar invested initially. We typically like to lead these pre-seed and seed rounds,” he added.

“We have returned capital on three of our Fund I investments and have seen follow on rounds in 14 companies of the total portfolio of 18. We still have close to four years for the first fund for us to return capital”, said, Arjun Rao, general partner at Speciale Invest.

Speciale Invest is backed by domestic institutional investors, family offices, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. The firm's portfolio counts startups such as Agnikul, The ePlane Company, Cynlr, and Qnu Labs. The size of the Fund’s entry ticket will range from $500,000 to $800,000.