Former Infosys board members TV Mohandas Pai and V Balakrishnan have topped up their private equity (PE) fund by Rs 25 crore, taking the total corpus to Rs 125 crore. This is their first fund which will invest in technology product companies. Their PE arm, Exfinity, also has the backing of other key IT industry veterans, such as former Wipro CEO Girish Paranjpe and former i-Flex CEO Deepak Ghaisas.
The fund had announced the closure of Rs 100 crore in June 2014, and the green shoe option of Rs 25 crore was open for subscription. Exfinity said the fund was further backed by CXOs, reputed industrialists, family offices, professionals and UHNIs. The fund has signed up four transactions that are at advanced stages of closure.
Said Balakrishnan, ?Our proposition of a practitioner-driven fund in funding disruptive technology ideas with high-impact strategic interventions has resonated well with investors.?
The Exfinity fund plans to invest in startups at the angel funding stage, and most of these investments are likely to centre around Bangalore, the hub of technology innovation.
The fund was launched soon after Balakrishnan left Infosys in December, 2013. Exfinity also has plans to launch a second fund with a corpus of Rs 125-130 crore. It is likely to be sector-agnostic.
