VC firm Orios eyes fifth sector-agnostic fund of $150 mn-200 mn next year

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₹1,253 crore-1,670 crore) in India’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, a top executive told Mint. The Mumbai-based firm, which has invested in MobiKwik, PharmEasy, and Country Delight, among others, is open to all sectors including software-as-a-service (SaaS), agritech, and healthtech, as it doubles down on early-stage startups with cheque sizes of $1-2 million, Sukhmani Bedi, a partner at Orios, said in an interview. So far, almost half of the $150 million fourth fund has been invested in startups including climate-tech firm Varaha and fixed-income lender Lendbox.

“We want to finish deploying from the current fund by early next year and start fundraising for the fifth fund by June 2025. We’ll continue focusing on the domestic ecosystem because we have faith in India’s consumption story," Bedi said. While the size of the fifth fund may change based on interest from limited partners (LPs), Bedi said $150 million-200 million is a good number to generate strong multiples.

“We have seen some funds get large cheques from LPs and looked beyond the Indian markets to generate hyper returns. But as a domestic fund, we know that a fund size of $150-200 million is sufficient to invest in the Indian ecosystem to generate good returns," she noted. Orios launched its first fund in 2014 and closed it at ₹300 crore the following year.

It backed 18 companies including dairy startup Country Delight, e-pharmacy company PharmEasy, and shared accommodation firm Zostel. The fund is said to have returned 1x to its LPs and increased returns are expected in 2024 and 2025, it said in January. “Looking back to Fund I, we can see that opportunity for startups has grown manifold.