Early-stage VC firm Unitus Ventures has announced the first close Rs 75+ crore towards its Rs 300-crore ($40 million) ‘Opportunity Fund’ that is aimed at growth investing. Unitus looks to offer growth capital to its 39 portfolio companies which were funded from its earlier Unitus Ventures Fund I and Unitus Ventures Fund II.
Limited Partners (LPs) participating in the new fund include Mynavi Corporation of Japan, BVR Mohan Reddy of Cyient, Nandkumar Seksaria of Govindram Seksaria Group, and others. Unitus has already deployed capital from this fund in start-ups like Eduvanz, Cuemath, Better Place, Masai School, and Awign. “The new fund provides investors a unique opportunity to invest in high-performing companies in their growth “hockey-stick” phase and to co-invest alongside other marquee investors,” Unitus Ventures said in a statement.
Surya Mantha, Managing Partner, Unitus Venture, shared, “Despite the tough macroeconomic environment, most of Unitus portfolio companies have grown sustainably because of their strong unit economics and unwavering focus on profitability. Top performers have shown impressive growth of more than 25 per cent QoQ since January 2021. We want to further bolster the performance of select leaders with the capital raised from the first close of the Opportunity Fund.”
Unitus, which started in 2012, primarily invests in sectors like edtech, fintech, jobtech and SaaS. It has been the first institutional investor in more than 80 per cent of its portfolio companies. Almost 83 per cent of its investments were made in the seed-stage.
The Bengaluru-based VC is now scouting for opportunities in emerging sectors like generative AI and climate tech. “About 20 per cent of the Opportunity Fund’s capital will be available for promising deals outside of Unitus’ existing portfolio. This will enable us to explore opportunities in early-growth or growth-stage companies (Series A+ onwards) that are capitalizing on advances in generative AI and climate technologies,” Mantha revealed.
More than half of Unitus’ investments have been in jobtech start-ups. During the pandemic, Unitus-backed jobtech start-ups impacted 9.6 million lives, creating opportunities and upscaling skills for a future-ready workforce, according to the company.
Commenting on its association with Unitus, Hidekazu Ito, India Head of Mynavi (a $2 billion Japanese conglomerate offering services related to education and jobs), stated, “Mynavi’s mission is to help shape the future by engaging individual potential in all walks and at all stages of life. Education and jobs are core to this. As we entered the India market, Unitus was the natural partner, given their expertise, networks and unparalleled portfolio of start-ups.”
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