The firm is looking to raise $75 million along with a greenshoe option of another $25-30 million, they said.
“We are looking at maybe the next couple of months or so for the first close, and maybe another two-three quarters after that for the final close,” Suri said.
The fund will back startups in the early stage and pick stakes in pre-IPO companies through secondary transactions.
It will focus on sectors such as climate and sustainability, fintech and consumer businesses.
For early-stage investments, the fund will lead the round with an average cheque size ranging from Rs 7 crore to Rs 12 crore, while for late-stage companies, the amount will range between Rs 20 crore and Rs 30 crore, the partners said.
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In the early-stage bets, BlueGreen Ventures plans to lead the funding rounds.Jain said the firm will primarily target startups building localised solutions for Indian problems within BlueGreen Ventures’ focus sectors.
“We want to build on our success on climate and sustainability models addressing India-specific climate goals and problems with Indian entrepreneurs and Indian solutions at scale. And that’s what drives our passion to make this and, sure enough, our confidence is extremely high because we’ve experienced success as fund managers in those two,” he said.
The firm has already raised commitments from some chief executives of global companies, Jain and Suri said. They did not disclose the names of the sponsors.
“For fund managers, it’s always about where the returns can be found. And these are risky returns, which means that these are new business models which don’t exist today. Entrepreneurs bring that model to life. We bet on them, and we support their journey, and they’re able to create a business model out of it,” Jain said.
At Orios Venture Partners, Jain was a part of the investment team while Suri led the firm’s investor relations. Their combined portfolio of investments includes BatterySmart, Zupee, CarDekho, Ixigo, Mobikwik, Bimaplan and Werize.
Before his time with Orios VP, Jain spent over two years building Redback Advisory services, which mentored startups. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of retail at Bata and senior director of strategic projects at Pizza Hut.
Suri, who joined Orios VP in 2019, was previously senior vice president and new business incubator at Viu, a Hong Kong-based over-the-top video streaming provider. Among other roles in the past, he was chief marketing officer and senior vice president at Reliance Jio and head of global marketing at Infosys.
