Infuse Ventures, the India-based venture capital firm co-founded by oil and gas firm BP, is looking to raise Rs 10bn ($150m) for a new fund called Bharat, DealStreetAsia reported today.
Bharat will look to invest in startups developing technology in the agriculture, healthcare, cleantech and small businesses technology sectors, according to Shyam Menon, an investment director at Infuse.
Infuse was founded in 2013 as a sustainability and clean energy-focused firm with Rs 1.25bn of capital, and has so far invested half that capital in 12 companies, Menon said. It plans to commit the rest to follow-on investments over the next six months.
In addition to BP, the firm’s founding partners include oleochemicals manufacturer Godrej Industries, financial services firms Union Bank of India and ICICI Bank, World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation and several Indian state-backed entities.
Approximately 10% of the new capital will be supplied to a total of around 100 hardware, agriculture, renewables and affordable technology startups in the form of equity-free seed investments that will fund prototyping.
Infuse, which intends to raise $75m of the new capital from banks and other institutional investors by the end of 2016, plans to make larger equity-based investments in roughly 20 of those seed-stage companies.