Chanakya Fund Trust announced the launch of the maiden rupees 100 Crores sector-agnostic fund. Chanakya Opportunities Fund I will invest in profitable small and medium-sized enterprises. It is an Alternative Investment Fund Category II and is Sebi registered. The company is set to invest in profitable SME companies with high-potential opportunities in the unorganized fields. And about 51 percent of the corpus is to be invested in small and medium-sized companies and termed start-ups in the manufacturing industry. It shall also invest in consumer products and technology.
A statement said that the fund shall invest about rupees 2 Crore to 10 Crore each in about twenty-five companies. The statement further said the fund will provide exit opportunities through primary markets. It intends to invest in enterprises that have the potential to get enlisted on SME exchanges along with small ticket-size IPO. The company aims to bring up capital from banks, Indians who are both resident and non-resident, high-net-worth individuals, accredited investors, trusts, and corporates.
What the founder of Chanakya Fund Trust, Kresha Gupta, said
The founder of Chanakya Fund Trust, Kresha Gupta, said that Chanakya Opportunities Fund I is their 1st offering. They have plans to bring up rupees 100 crores in the 1st year. This shall be a close-ended fund. And they will accept subscriptions for 5 years from the 1st close. This shall be with a maximum of 2 extensions of 1 year each.
Kresha Gupta is one of the youngest woman investors in the country. She is a Chartered Accountant who is based in Ahmedabad. She will launch the fund focused on SMEs and startups. The fund is a part of the Chanakya Fund Trust. It recently got approval from the capital markets regulator to launch a Cat 2 AIF. Kresha Gupta said that their goal is to create some world-class investment products. Moreover, these products shall be at competitive costs for investors in the markets of India. They will develop and also launch products under this aegis.
This announcement of the new fund has appeared at a difficult time. This is because, at present, investors are shying away from investing in startups in India. Investors are cautious because of macroeconomic headwinds and a sharp decline in the valuation of several listed companies. There are also worries about a global recession.
Several corporate governance issues at startups such as GoMechanic, Zilingo, and BharatPe have led to investors shutting their purse strings. Investors remain bullish on the startup ecosystem in India.
Also, Real Time Angel Fund announced the 2nd close of its maiden fund at rupees 125 Crores. It further increased its total corpus of the fund to rupees 510 Crores. This month, VC firm Speciale Invest launched rupees 200 Crores growth fund to invest in startups.
Inc42 reported that India saw the start of 126 new funds in the year 2022. It together brought up a corpus of 18 billion dollars. The Chanakya Fund Trust’s Opportunities Fund is a closed-ended scheme. The fund plans to invest in about 25 to 30 companies. It has a ticket size from 2 crores to rupees 10 crores per company.
The Chanakya fund trust has the potential to show a due diligence process to identify some best investment ideas. As a result, investors with a period of more than 1 year can look at investing in this scheme.
