Elev8 Venture Partners, the venture capital firm founded by former Kae Capital partner Navin Honagudi, has announced the closure of its maiden fund at ₹1,400 crore (approximately $160 million), signaling its entry into India’s increasingly competitive growth-stage investment landscape. The fund, registered as a Category II alternative investment fund with SEBI in 2022, is focused on backing businesses in consumer internet, enterprise software, and fintech.
The fund has attracted a diverse mix of global and domestic investors, including sovereign wealth funds, family offices, unicorn founders, and institutions from South Korea, Hong Kong, and India. South Korea-based KB Investment, part of KB Financial Group, is the anchor limited partner. The Self-Reliant India Fund has also participated in the fundraise. KB Investment has an active Indian portfolio, with stakes in startups such as PharmEasy, Spinny, Vedantu, Kuku FM, Cashify, and Rupeek.
Elev8 has already deployed nearly one-third of the fund’s corpus across five high-growth startups—AstroTalk (online astrology), IDfy (identity verification), smallcase (wealthtech), Porter (logistics unicorn), and Snapmint (BNPL player). Honagudi highlighted that these portfolio companies are “growing at more than 30% annually while maintaining profitability.”
Looking ahead, the firm intends to invest the remaining two-thirds of its capital over the next 12 to 18 months, writing cheques in the range of $10–15 million across 12 to 14 startups. These investments will primarily target businesses with valuations between $100 million and $300 million, focusing on profitable ventures with strong institutional backers to ensure better governance. “Our strategy is to avoid binary-risk bets such as gaming and to focus on profitable companies with existing institutional investors,” Honagudi stated.
The closure of Elev8’s debut fund comes amid a wave of new India-focused venture capital activity. In recent months, Bessemer Venture Partners closed a $350 million India fund, Accel raised $650 million for its eighth India-focused fund, and Elevation Capital announced a $400 million late-stage fund aimed at supporting companies heading toward public listings.
