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Business Standard
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
360 ONE Asset launches Rs 500 cr VC fund to tap early-stage startups
360 ONE Asset, the asset management arm of wealth manager 360 ONE WAM, has rolled out a Rs 500 crore early-stage venture capital fund, marking a decisive push into India's burgeoning startup ecosystem. The fund has already backed four startups across diverse sectors, bolstering the firm's 'Idea to IPO' capital stack. The fund will focus on seed and Series A rounds in areas such as consumer tech, fintech infrastructure, generative AI and frontier technologies including spacetech, defence and precision manufacturing, according to a press statement. Anchored by 360 ONE Asset's $3 billion private equity platform, the strategy emphasises deep involvement, board participation and long-term capital support, the company said. 'As India approaches its next wave of startup-led economic transformation, 360 ONE Asset's early-stage strategy aims to be at the forefront, identifying, backing and shaping the companies that will define the next generation of unicorns,' said Sameer Nath, CIO & Head, Private Equity & Venture Capital, 360 ONE Asset. The firm is positioning itself to fill a gap between the country's micro-VC ecosystem and large global funds, said Abhishek Nag, Senior Fund Manager, Strategy Head, Early-Stage VC, 360 ONE Asset, adding that the firm will support startups with patient, long-term capital throughout their growth journey. 'We follow a disciplined investment process with rigorous diligence, clear value creation plans and defined exit strategies. We also offer active co-investment opportunities for strategic partners, all while staying focused on long-term macro trends like domestic consumption, financial infrastructure, healthcare, AI-led services and deep tech innovation,' Nag added. The strategy is already in motion, with deals in advanced stages of diligence. These include a hybrid-casual gaming startup whose flagship India-focused game hit 10 million downloads in three months; a hot sauce brand popularising Indian flavours abroad; a SaaS firm building a 'mutual fund AMC in a box'; and a spacetech company developing indigenous Synthetic Aperture Radar technology with ISRO expertise, the company said. 360 ONE Asset's early-stage bets are supported by an advisory board that includes entrepreneurs and tech leaders such as Gaurav Kushwaha, Nigel Vaz, Vaibhav Domkundwar and Ashwin Mittal.
Mint
22-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
360 ONE Asset launches ₹500 crore early-stage fund to back startups
Mumbai: 360 ONE Asset, a wholly owned subsidiary of 360 ONE WAM, has launched an early-stage fund with a corpus of ₹500 crore to back seed and Series A startups across key sectors, a top executive said. With cheque sizes ranging from ₹10–25 crore, the fund will aim for meaningful ownership in about 25 companies, focusing on areas such as domestic consumption, frontier technology, financial services infrastructure, and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-led services. Read this | GrowX reaps a bonanza from space-tech firm Pixxel 'The stage that we will come at will be the first institutional round in a company that is beginning to see strong and early signs of a product market fit. With this fund, we aim to bridge the funding gap between the very early stages and the growth stage options that are available in the market," Abhishek Nag, strategy head of early-stage VC at 360 ONE Asset, told Mint in an interview. While older venture capital funds have become larger and are targeting relatively later stages, the early-stage end of the spectrum now has a robust pool of micro venture capital firms, solo general partners (GPs), and angel investors issuing pre-seed cheques. 'Our focus is the stage in the middle where we hope to build a high conviction, concentrated portfolio of companies that have a reasonable product market fit with good fundamentals in place," Nag said, adding that the fund will also offer co-investment opportunities for strategic partners alongside leading rounds. On sectoral focus, Nag said there are multiple strong tailwinds in consumption. 'With the rise of GenZ and mass affluent and per capita income increasing, discretionary spends are also on the rise. There is scope for multiple global consumer brands that can come from India." Read this | VC fundraising wave gains as dealmaking rebounds, but caution prevails 'We are also spending a lot of time understanding defence, space, semiconductor and precision manufacturing industries. There is also a lot to do in building strong global supply chains," Nag said. Other sectors such as financial services remain underpenetrated, while GenAI-led services are expected to disrupt traditional services companies, he added. The fund has already made four investments across sectors such as gaming, consumer, SaaS, and space-tech, though it did not disclose specific names. 360 ONE Asset, which manages more than $3 billion in assets across its venture capital and private equity platform, has launched several other funds in recent months, including a ₹4,000 crore secondaries fund, a pre-IPO fund, a healthcare-focused private equity fund, and sector-specific funds targeting financial services and technology. It also expects to launch a consumer-focused fund soon. Also read | Mint Explainer: How can collapse impact AI investments in India? 'We have launched these funds as we believe there is a lot of depth in the kind of opportunities we are seeing today. There is immense scope for good returns as exit strategies evolve for new-age companies. We also have the ability to offer expertise, and another way to think about the depth in the market is to have the right size of funds chasing those companies," Nag said, adding that the firm can support startups from the idea stage all the way to IPO.
