Athera Venture Partners secures HDFC AMC backing for ₹900 cr Fund IV

Tech-focused venture capital fund Athera Venture Partners, previously known as Inventus India, has received investment from HDFC AMC's Select AIF Fund of Funds (FoF) I Scheme for its ₹900 crore Fund IV, which is scheduled to close in 2025.

Managing three prior funds with an AUM of $130 million, the Athera team says its Fund-IV will also include other investors like prominent Indian family offices and international foundations. "HDFC Fund of Funds will be a dominant limited partner (LP) in Athera’s ₹900 crore fund to be invested into fast-growing tech startups operating in the consumer internet, enterprise software, AI and other emerging technologies."

Athera's portfolio of investments includes startups like Ati Motors, an autonomous robotics company; Terra, a 3D immersive online gaming platform; ClickPost, software to help brands manage logistics; Cyn:Lr, a computer vision for robotics; Hyperbots, an AI automation company; and Billion Hearts, creator of simple digital consumer products for a global audience. With these 6 investments, 30% of the portfolio is constructed, and the fund claims to be in the positive internal rate of return (IRR) territory. The company says it aims to infuse money into a dozen more startups from its Fund IV in the next two years.

“With this fund, we remain committed to supporting the Indian startup ecosystem and are looking forward to backing many exciting and innovative founders that are set to transform the world with their solutions,” said Rutvik Doshi, general partner & MD, Athera.

Launched in 2008, Athera has backed early-stage and tech-first startups, partnering largely in Series A and seed-stage funding. The VC firm has, so far, invested in over 40 companies that include ventures like redBus, PolicyBazaar, Pixxel, MoveinSync, Sokrati, FundsIndia , Euler Motors, BluArmor, Vunet, Healthifyme, Playshifu, Unbxd, among others. Across the prior funds, it has been part of two IPOs and 10 profitable exits.

VC fundings up 44% in Jan-Oct

In a sign of increasing investor confidence in India's startup ecosystem, a total of 984 venture capital (VC) funding deals were recorded during January-October 2024, which was a year-on-year (YoY) improvement of 5.8% in deal volume. The total disclosed funding value of these deals jumped by 44.4% YoY to $9.2 billion during the same period, the latest data by U.K.-based data and analytics company GlobalData shows.

Comparatively, a total of 930 VC deals were announced in India during January-October 2023, with the total disclosed funding value of these deals pegged at $6.4 billion. Tech start-ups have been going through a rough period since 2021 when funding peaked at $39.4 billion. In 2022, the numbers plunged to $11.4 billion and fell further to $8.8 billion in 2023. The start-up ecosystem saw the first signs of recovery in the first half of the year (H1 2024) as funding surged slightly. They raised $5.1 billion in H1 2024 alone, a 7% increase from $4.46 billion in H2 2023, turning around two years of successive decline in funding every six months.

With the continued revival in funding activity, India remains among the top five markets globally for VC funding activity in terms of deal volume as well as value. The country accounted for a 7.1% share of the total number of VC deals announced globally during January-October 2024, whereas its share in terms of total disclosed funding value stood at 4.2%.