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Mercatus, an angel investment fund, is looking at investing in software product firms, retail & cleantech.

Singapore-based early stage venture capital firm Mercatus Capital has closed two investments in in India. The fund has invested undisclosed amounts in I-Flapp Technologies and Lucid Software. I-Flapp develops mobility solutions which help one carry software like Adobe, MS Office applications, etc. on pen drives. Lucid Software specialises in non-destructive testing (NDT) technology and develops software solutions.

Mercatus, with a focus on early stage, invests between $250K-$2 million in each company. There are only few funds in India at the early stage who are investing in that range. There is Seedfund, Ojas Ventures, Accel India (formerly Erasmic Ventures) and angel funding organisations like Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels.

Mercatus closed the deal with Chennai-based Lucid only a couple of months back. "They build software that allows you to virtualise, map everything and see the defects," says Rajesh Sukumaran, investment manager for Mercatus Capital's India operations. Lucid's software has applications in areas having large infrastructure facilities like dams and nuclear installations. The company, which has around 50 employees, cliams to have recently bagged some global tenders. Lucid's clients are mainly in Europe, especially Germany.  

I-Flapp, based out of Singapore and Bangalore, was funded early last year. The company is now launching a new version of its products, says Sukumaran. The company is ramping up its operations and tying up with software distributors for new products.

Mercatus says it's an angel investment fund, and its limited partners are high net worth individuals (HNIs), most of them based out of Singapore. Mercatus is focused on the Asia-Pacific region, though it does not have any country specific fund. It is investing out of $90 million fund and invests in China, Australia and New Zealend.

Though Mercatus is sector agnostic, it prefers to invest in products firms. "We like to invest in product-based companies, which can be patented and taken global," adds Sukumaran. Globally, Mercatus has several investments in the health care sector. The fund is looking at IT, retail sector and is also exploring opportunities in the cleantech space.