Avendus, prime India enterprise advisor, seeks $300 million for brand new PE fund

Avendus, India’s main funding financial institution for enterprise offers, is trying to elevate about $300 million for its non-public fairness unit, based on three sources accustomed to the matter.

The Mumbai-based agency, backed by U.S. non-public fairness large KKR, has established itself as the highest monetary advisor in India, working with in style growth-stage startups together with Zepto, LensKart, XpressBees, CaratLane, and Atomberg on their funding rounds final 12 months.

With its third non-public fairness fund, Avendus plans to write down bigger checks extra regularly, one of many sources stated. The agency raised its second fund, amounting to round $185 million, in 2021. Its maiden fund was $50 million in dimension.

The sources requested anonymity to debate non-public issues. An Avendus spokesperson declined to remark.

Avendus first gained prominence as India’s startup ecosystem first began to take form, capitalizing on the truth that a lot of its well-known rivals — together with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan — initially paid much less consideration to the Indian market. That was partly attributable to deal sizes within the early days: usually they have been beneath $30 million, not substantial sufficient to generate important charges, making it much less enticing for a lot of banner names to interact.

However because the Indian startup ecosystem flourished prior to now decade, changing into the third-largest on the planet, it has attracted international giants together with SoftBank, Tiger International, and Basic Atlantic, in addition to sovereign wealth funds like Temasek, GIC, ADIA, Khazanah, PIB, and Mubadala, which have collectively poured tens of billions of {dollars} into startups small and enormous in India.

Avendus employs over 150 bankers and was the highest monetary advisor in India final 12 months. It offered providers in over 30 offers, together with merger and acquisition transactions, based on Enterprise Intelligence, a non-public market perception platform.

Prior to now decade, just like monetary advisors in different areas, Avendus has diversified its choices, venturing into wealth administration, credit score financing, and personal fairness. Final 12 months, the agency additionally expanded its monetary advisory providers to the Southeast Asian area.