SUMMARY
- Stellaris Venture Partners launches $300M India-focused fund for tech-driven startup investments.
- Promotes Naman Lahoty to partner and adds Vardhan Dharnidharka as investing principal.
- Holds $600M AUM, investing in diverse sectors, recently reducing stake in Mamaearth.
Stellaris Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that has funded firms including Mamaearth, Whatfix, Propelld, Turno, Dashtoon, and Kiwi, among others, closed its third fund with an India emphasis at $300 million, (around ₹2,534 crore).
Among other industries, Stellaris intends to use the new funding to support these entrepreneurs in consumer technology, enterprise software, financial services, and artificial intelligence.
Over the following three years, the new fund will continue to drive seed and Series A funding investments in 25–30 firms, according to a statement from the venture capital firm.
Additionally, the sector-neutral firm revealed significant leadership changes, including the promotion of Naman Lahoty, a former principal, to partner. Additionally, a leader in AI/ML engineering, Vardhan Dharnidharka, has moved to Bengaluru and joined as an investing principal. With the addition of the new fund, the venture capital firm now has over $600 million in total assets under management (AUM).
According to the announcement, the third fund witnessed participation from both new and existing Limited Partners (LPs), including foundations, pension funds, university endowments, and reputable funds of funds.
Rahul Chowdhri, partner at Stellaris Venture Partners states, “India’s startup ecosystem has transformed since we started our fund, with a 4X growth in the deal flow and a rise in repeat entrepreneurs and founders from successful startups. With this new fund, we are excited to back founders using technology to solve deep problems in large markets.”
Founded by Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal, and Chowdhri, former partners at Helion Ventures, Stellaris has software behemoths Cisco and Infosys as well as the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation among its LPs and backers.
Since its founding in 2017, the venture capital firm has amassed a portfolio of more than 40 businesses in industries including SaaS, consumer goods, financial services, business-to-business (B2B) transactions, education, healthcare, and mobility.
Sixty percent of the 44 IT startups that Stellaris claims to have invested in through two funds are in the conception stage. Earlier this year, the venture capital firm sold a 1% share in Honasa Consumer Limited, Mamaearth’s parent company, on the open market for ₹140.61 crore. It also announced the $225 million completion of its second fund in August 2021.
The VC company sold 32,17,468 shares of Honasa Consumer Limited through its subsidiary Stellaris Venture Partners India I, according to data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The transaction value was ₹140.61 crore, with the average price per share at the time of the deal being INR 437.04. After the deal, Stellaris Venture Partners’ stake in Honasa Consumer was lowered from 5.78% to 4.78%.
