Fintech companies, e-commerce firms and value-chain players will now be able to access more funds, thanks to a $100 million fund-raising initiative of Unitary Helion, a new India- focused, technology fund.
The announcement was made by Rahul Chandra, co-founder and managing director of Helion Venture Partners, in Bengaluru on Monday. The early stage fund is aiming for a corpus of $100 million to begin with.
"The fund will invest in fintech, digital marketplaces and value chain innovation in core sectors such as financial services, agri, logistics and healthcare," Unitary Helion said in a statement.
Unitary Helion is apparently in talks with banks and companies in the financial services business for raising the amount. Initially, the fund will invest in about 20 companies.
Rahul Chandra, who is the founder of Unitary Helion, has earlier backed many early-stage start-ups such as Seclore, UnitedLex, Shubham, Wooplr, Ezetap, MoEngage, RailYatri, Crownit and Toppr through Helion Venture Partners.
"Venture investments in India are entering a new cycle with founders focussing on problems that are unique to India and those impacting hundreds of millions of lives. At Unitary Helion the team is focused on entrepreneurs that combine deep domain expertise with innovative technology solutions to unlock massive value," Chandra said in a statement.
In a related development, temporary staffing company TeamLease Services announced on Monday that it has acquired 30 percent stake in online job portal Freshersworld.com for an undisclosed sum.
"The fastest growing functional segments of India's job market over the next decade are sales, customer service and logistics and freshersworld.com is uniquely positioned among entry level job seekers," Ashok Reddy, MD of TeamLease Services, said in a regulatory filing to the BSE.
Freshersworld.com will continue operating as a separate and independent entity.
"The partnership with Teamlease will allow us to create a formidable force with enhanced product offerings in building databases, online job matching, assessments and background verification," Joby Joseph, Founder & CEO, Freshersworld.com said in the statement.
TeamLease Services shares were trading 1.75 percent higher at Rs. 1,160 apiece at around 12.45 pm on the BSE on Tuesday. The company went public last February. The BSE Sensex was trading 22 points higher at 31,130. Top index gainers were NTPC, Adani Ports and Dr Reddy's Labs.
