Funds managed
| Fund name | Asset Class | License |
| Ankur Capital Fund | Social Venture Capital- Early Stage Investing | SEBI AIF Cat 1 |
| Ankur Capital Fund II | Social Venture Capital- Early Stage Investing | SEBI AIF Cat 1 |
About the AMC
Ankur Capital is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in opportunities created by rising aspirations and digital access for the next billion Indians.
We invest in technologies and product innovations in agriculture, healthcare, education and other areas with the potential to create large-scale impact.
We bring more than capital; our in-house team partners with portfolio companies to accelerate their growth.
We are invested in fourteen companies across these sectors. Many of our portfolio companies have gone ahead to raise subsequent rounds of capital.
Key staff
- Rema Subramanian (Co-Founder, Managing Partner)- Rema co- founded Ankur with a vision to use her multi decade CXO and entrepreneurial experience to bring the tools to young startups to become game changers. She has worked across education and IT/ITES taking young companies from scratch to midsize ventures. She is a cost accountant from ICFAI and when she has spare time she likes to travel and try her hand at growing plants.
- Ritu Verma (Co-Founder, Managing Partner)- Ritu is one of the co-founders at Ankur. She is passionate about bringing innovation from the lab to the market and did that for a decade across corporates – Unilever and Philips. She has also worked globally investing in IP led renewable technologies. She has a PhD in physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from INSEAD. If Ritu had any spare time she’d love to travel to all ends of the earth and read a few books.
Investment Philosophy (for firm)
● Capital
We are focused on start-ups. Early stage investing is all we do!Ankur provides flexible capital suited to creating the biggest impact. We are looking for innovative business models across various themes such as digital inclusion and deep tech that can address core challenges across sectors such agritech, food, healthcare, financial, logistics, retail, education, among others. We deploy between $500K to $5 million. We also help our portfolio companies leverage our investment to raise additional capital from other investors.
● Collaborate
Raising money alone is not enough; creating the scale and impact on ground is. We not only provide the capital but also the know-how that young companies need to thrive and grow.
Our portfolio acceleration team and venture advisors bring their years of experience to work with our investors to establish business fundamentals and set them up for scale. This team digs in alongside entrepreneurs to recruit talent, grapple with operational processes, assist in business development and be their strategic sounding board.
● Connect
We may not have all the answers. But, the network we can leverage does. As an Ankur portfolio company, you get access to our vast and diverse network. From experts in manufacturing, to energy efficiency; accountants to lawyers; rural marketers to publishing firms; HR consultants to scientists, we can put you in touch with people who will help answer your questions, expand your horizons and help your business grow.
Media
Title: Ankur Capital makes first close of its second fund at Rs 240 crore, Source: ET article, Date: 13 January 2020
“The fund strategy is to look at investing in technology and disruption and is aimed at what we term as the next billion or mass market in India. The underlying thesis is that we build on the digitisation or digital presence that has happened, which has allowed a lot of different types of business to be created,” Ritu Verma, co-founder of Ankur Capital, told ET.
Title: From a cheque of Rs 11,001 to raising Rs 350 crore: how Ankur Capital is betting big on Bharat, Date: 18 April 2020
https://yourstory.com/2019/04/ankur-capital-bets-big-bharat-social-impact
Journey of the founders- how they started out Ankur Capital with their first cheque of 11,001. To prove to the world that social impact companies could be successful for profit too, they started investing in the companies on their own.
The two Rs (Rema and Ritu) represent Risk and Reward.
Analyst questions
- When you say you invest in companies making a social impact, what is the criterion that you look at when selecting a company?
- How did you come to this level of success, given the gender gap?
- In one of the interviews you mentioned it was hard to find people to believe in your idea of social impact for profit, how did you move forward from there?
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