Singapore-based Panthera Growth Partners (PGP) has announced the first close of its second fund after securing more than half of its targeted $250 million corpus, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
The fund expects to raise the whole expected target by the end of this financial year and will offer up to 100% commitments in co-investment opportunities.
PGP said that it will invest in companies that have achieved product-market fit and are looking to accelerate market growth. It will deploy up to $20 million on an average in 10-12 companies across India and Southeast Asia.
“We are a growth equity investor focused on revenue-generating enterprises that are building scalable businesses having achieved product-market-fit. We believe that operating through partners is just as important as capital at this growth stage. With our team’s experience of investing and operating companies in the ecosystem for more than two decades, we look to support entrepreneurs and managements as they embark on their ambitious journeys,” said Shilpa Kulkarni, founder and managing partner, Panthera Growth Fund.
Founded in 2021, its maiden Fund I raised $84 million from global investors which was largely deployed across different sectors with investments in companies like Bigbasket, Pepperfry, Zivame and Ofbusiness, among others.
The firm has raised capital from India, the EU and US. Fund II has been formed to build upon the investment track record by focusing on investments in growth-stage technology companies that already have, or are poised to become, leaders in their respective markets, the statement said.
The announcement comes at a time when venture funds are slowing the capital deployment in growth-stage funding. Several growth-stage backers have started investing in early stages (Series A or before), one of them being Tiger Global which is primarily focused on growth investments.
