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Now A Venture Fund Exclusively For IIT, IIM Grads

By Shrija Agrawal

  • 08 Apr 2011

Vikram Gupta, former chief operating officer (COO) of India Venture Advisors, a healthcare fund sponsored by the Piramal Group, has launched an innovation and technology venture capital fund that will target to invest in entrepreneurs from India’s leading educational institutions like the IIMs and IITs.

The fund, titled IvyCap Ventures, is targeting to raise $75 million, Gupta said in an interview to VCCircle. The fund’s strategy is to focus on the entrepreneurs with high-quality professional training from premier Indian institutions like the IITs, IIMs and other similar organisations. The fund will follow a sector and stage-agnostic approach, Gupta said.

Gupta, an alumnus of IIT Delhi (1989-93), claims that the fund has received an “excellent interest” from the successful alumni of IITs and IIMs and, therefore, will make its first close soon.

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The ‘Ivy’ approach is helping Gupta raise funds from the alumni of the premier institutes like the IITs. For instance, he has created an IIT Alumnus Trust which is an LP in the fund. Ex-IITians invest in the trust which will, in turn, make investments in the fund as LP.

The fund has also distinguished itself by earmarking 5 per cent of the profits (carry) to be distributed among the alma maters of the LPs in the fund. “The cheque will go in the name of the investor to his/her respective alma mater,” Gupta said.

Gupta left India Venture Advisors in February, 2011, after a four-year stint where he had managed investments in the healthcare sector. Prior to that, he was vice-president (strategy and planning) at Piramal Healthcare Ltd. Gupta had also promoted consulting firm ProSource Group and worked with Lupin, Dr Reddy’s and IBM early in his career.

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With the new fund, Gupta will join the club of several independent fund managers who are currently on road to raise funds.

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