Bangalore headquartered Menterra Venture Advisors today announced the first close of its Menterra Social Impact Fund II.
The first close of this fund is being announced with commitment of approximately Rs.227Cr (~US$30MM). The target fund corpus is Rs.750Cr (~US$100MM) which includes a green shoe option of Rs.250Cr (~US$33MM). The Fund targets final close by March 2023 with at least one intermediate close during this calendar year.
Menterra Social Impact Fund I was launched in 2016 as a demonstrator fund with a small corpus of Rs.50Cr (~US$7MM) to demonstrate the potential for delivering meaningful impact together with commercial returns to investors. The Fund has made 12 investments within its investment period, all in early-stage companies in healthcare, education and agriculture. Investments include companies such as Biosense (since divested to Perkin Elmer, USA), Omix Research and Diagnostic Labs, Adiuvo Diagnostics, Ez Vidya Private Limited (an education services company, owners of the Chrysalis brand). More recently, the Fund has incubated Iron Kettle Private Limited a company focused on improving commercial outcomes for small tea growers. Menterra has also made a significant minority investment in Medhavi Professional Services Private Limited - a career counselling company.
Mukesh Sharma, Investment Partner at Menterra Venture Advisors, highlighted that, "Menterra I has returned significant capital to its investors during the investment period of the fund through exits and expects to generate top quartile returns from this maiden fund. This fund has the distinction of having deployed 104% of its corpus in investments including recycled capital from divestments."
The Menterra Fund managers will be shortly announcing a series of challenges in partnership with identified incubators and accelerators in India to identify high quality startups that have developed solutions for the most pressing issues facing agriculture, healthcare, and education in India.
Paul Basil who leads impact management at Menterra, said, "The successor Menterra Social Impact Fund II continues with the focus of its demonstrator fund to target early-stage investments into businesses that are delivering innovative and efficient resolution of the largest problems facing education, healthcare and agriculture in India."
George Thomas, who leads asset management at Menterra, drew attention to the unique business model of the fund and said, "The success of Menterra I is largely due to the structured and customized support to early-stage investee companies in the portfolio to achieve sustainable commercialization. This level and depth of engagement with investee companies is a unique feature of Menterra's investment approach and an essential element of ensuring success of early-stage investments."
Menterra Venture Advisors was created to address the need for follow on capital for seed stage businesses incubated at its affiliate Villgro Innovations Foundation. Menterra funds are focused on supporting innovative business models that deliver affordable solutions to improve outcomes and access in healthcare and education. In agriculture, Menterra targets improving sustainability of the small farmers through improved market access and insulating these farmers from the adverse impact of climate change. Menterra is an equal opportunity employer with 57% of its investments meeting the 2X gender challenge.
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( With inputs from ANI )
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