Elev8 Venture Partners closes maiden fund at Rs 1,400 crore to support Indian startups

Elev8 Venture Partners, a venture capital firm founded by former Kae Capital partner Navin Honagudi, has closed its first fund at Rs 1,400 crore (about $160 million), marking its entry into India’s crowded growth-stage investment market.

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The fund, which received its Category II alternative investment fund licence from the Securities and Exchange Board of India in 2022, will focus on companies in consumer internet, enterprise software, and fintech. Its investors include institutions from South Korea, Hong Kong and India, along with sovereign funds, family offices and several unicorn founders.

South Korea–based KB Investment, part of the KB Financial Group, has emerged as the anchor limited partner. The Self-Reliant India Fund has also committed capital. KB Investment, one of 13 subsidiaries managed by KB Financial Group, has an active startup portfolio in India that spans PharmEasy, Spinny, Vedantu, Kuku FM, Cashify and Rupeek.

Elev8 said it has deployed one-third of the fund’s corpus in five startups, including online astrology platform AstroTalk, identity verification company IDfy, wealthtech firm smallcase, logistics unicorn Porter and BNPL firm Snapmint. These businesses, according to Honagudi, are growing at more than 30% annually while maintaining profitability.

The firm plans to invest the remaining corpus within the next 12 to 18 months, writing checks of $10 million to $15 million each across 12 to 14 startups valued between $100 million and $300 million.

Elev8’s strategy, Honagudi said, is to avoid binary-risk bets such as gaming and to focus on profitable companies with existing institutional investors to ensure stronger governance.

The closure comes amid a flurry of new India-focused funds. In March, Bessemer Venture Partners closed a $350 million India fund, while Accel raised $650 million for its eighth India-dedicated fund in January. Just last week, Elevation Capital announced a $400 million late-stage fund to back companies preparing for public offerings.