First Bridge India Growth Fund Partner

First Bridge India Growth Fund

Inflection Capital – High Growth Businesses

Started six years ago and is currently managing two growth capital funds.
Made seven investments from Fund I, which is carried a gross IRR of 24.2% and MOIC of 3.2x.
~75% of the Fund I corpus returned from one portfolio exit.
Significant part of Fund I was raised from seven domestic Institutions like SIDBI, NABARD, LIC and others.

Co-founded by KK Rathi and Vishal Gupta; unique blend of investing and operating experience and they have been part of scaling up journeys of several highly successful companies.
The team comprises of ten investment professionals. Each of the senior team member have more than 15 years of private equity. investing experience.
Most of the team members have worked/known each other for more than a decade.
The team members have invested Rs 6,200 crs in 59 businesses (across various private equity funds that they worked with in the past); 27 exits yielding 47% IRR and ~5x MoC^.
Few examples of previous investee companies are Au Financiers, Dixon Technologies, AND Design, Capital Foods, Aavas Financiers, etc.
(^ Based on individual team member’s experience across various private equity funds that they worked with over the last 15 years)

Founder

Co – Founder

Fund II is focused on providing inflection capital to growth stage companies, who have robust business model, to help accelerate their growth and create sustainable businesses.
Fund II has preference for,
- first generation entrepreneurs
- businesses which have dominant market presence, a highly profitable unit economics and are using technology effectively to enhance their business model.
Limited private equity activity in deal sizes of up to Rs 150 crs. Creates opportunity for a new fund in this segment that is sector agnostic and focused on traditional business which are using technology very effectively to enhance their operations.

Strong network of boutique investment banks, CA firms, individual advisors and promoters.
- Enables team to see large numbers of transactions.
- Reasonable entry valuations and strong affirmative rights.
Fund II has signed three exclusive term sheets and two of them are in documentation stage
- In all cases entry valuation is very reasonable.
- Deal 1 – A prominent NBFC in the asset financing space with a journey of more than 30 years; AUM of ~Rs 3,200 crs. Attractive entry valuation of ~1.8x P/B.
- Deal 2 – One of the largest player in the ladies handbag segment in the country, with revenues of ~Rs 250 crs. Attractive entry valuation of ~12x EV/EBITDA on current year’s performance.
Current pipeline provides strong visibility to 20-25% of the portfolio.

Fund II has achieved a first close in May. It has garnered commitments of ~Rs 300 crs; including Rs 30 crs commitment from the two co-founders.
- Recentlysecured Rs 50 crs of commitment from SIDBI (at documentation stage); SIDBI is considered as a lead investor by various institutions like LIC, NABARD, SRI fund and various other PSU banks.
- NABARD’s investment team is discussing the fund proposal with its IC.
In advanced stage of discussion for Rs 200 crs of immediate commitments, including Rs 100 crs from various domestic institutions.
Fund II has an exclusive distribution arrangement with the Motilal Oswal group for marketing the fund to its clients.
Fund II is well positioned to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns to its investors.