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Type | Private Ownership |
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Industry | Venture capital |
Founded | 2001 |
Headquarters | Gurugram, Haryana & Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
Products | Venture capital, Growth capital |
Website | elevationcapital |
Elevation Capital, which was previously known as SAIF Partners India till October 2020 [1] [2] ,is an India-focused venture capital fund, investing in early-stage startups (seed, series A, series B rounds) [3] . Elevation Capital funds are based in Mauritius and have a team of investment advisors in India [4] .
The fund has been the first investor in market-leading companies like Paytm, Swiggy, Urban Company, Meesho, FirstCry, Acko, Rivigo, Nobroker.com and ShareChat. The India investment advisors have offices in Bengaluru and Gurgaon, India and the fund also has a team and office in Mauritius.
Elevation Capital has raised a total of ~USD 1Bn across its three funds [5] .
Elevation Capital was initially started as SAIF Partners India, a fund for investments in South and East Asia (including India and China). It branched out in 2011 when it raised its first India dedicated fund of USD350M [6] . It thus became an independent fund solely focused on India. Since then they have raised two more funds of similar size (in 2015 and 2017) and have backed more than 50 companies since.
The fund has historically invested in multiple companies with "India-first” business models [7] . Elevation Capital is an early stage investor in consumer internet, B2B technology and consumer brand companies in India [8] . The fund invests across stages with seed and Series A rounds forming a major share of its investments. The fund is often the first institutional investor in these investee companies. The initial investment amounts can start from USD1M (in seed rounds) and go up to USD15-20M in Series B and later stages. The fund continues to participate in later rounds in these companies with investment in a single company going up to USD 50Mn and above [9] . A part of the fund is also invested in listed Indian companies through the FPI [ disambiguation needed ] route licensed under SEBI regulations.
The fund invests across a wide range of sectors including (not limited to) mobile, gaming [ disambiguation needed ], content, social, e-commerce, education, B2B, SME and enterprise SaaS, cloud and IT infrastructure, fintech, healthcare, healthtech, consumer brands, logistics, travel and mobility [10] .
Paytm is a payment and fintech app, with over 39 million daily active users [11] . Over 7 million merchants use Paytm and its QR code to accept payments directly in their bank accounts [12] . Paytm has offerings such as Paytm Gold, Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm money, amongst others [13] . Elevation Capital has invested in Paytm across multiple rounds. The company has also raised capital from Berkshire Hathaway, Softbank, Alibaba [14] [15] .
Founded in 2014, Swiggy is India’s largest and most valuable online food ordering and delivery platform. Elevation Capital co-led the first institutional round of Swiggy in 2015. Swiggy has since then raised investments from other leading investors including Bessemer, Norwest, Naspers, Tencent [16] .
Urban Company is India's largest home services marketplace. The platform helps customers hire trusted professionals for services like salon at home, cleaning, plumbing, carpentry, yoga training etc. Elevation Cpaital co-led the seed round of the company in 2015 [17] . Post that, Urban Company has raised multiple rounds from several investors like Tiger Global, Vy Capital and Steadview Capital [18] .
Unacademy is India’s largest learning platform. The platform today helps aspirants prepare for 30+ competitive examinations. As of February, Unacademy had 90,000+ active subscribers and 14,000+ active educators [19] . In September 2017, Elevation Capital co-led the Series B round in Unacademy. Other investors in Unacademy include Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview, General Atlantic and Facebook [20] .
Firstcry is Asia’s largest online shopping store for kids and baby products. Launched in 2010, company raised its first round of institutional capital in 2011, led by Elevation Capital. Firstcry has since then been backed by several marquee investors including Softbank [21] .
Meesho is an Indian origin social commerce platform founded in December 2015. Meesho has created a distribution channel for long tail products, allowing its resellers to sell these products across a wide variety of channels like Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram. Elevation Capital invested in Meesho in early 2017 [22] . Meesho has raised capital from several leading investors including Sequoia, DST, Naspers and Facebook [23] .
ShareChat is the Indian regional social media platform targeting the new internet user in India. Elevation Capital invested in the seed stage in Sharechat [24] . ShareChat has raised capital from leading investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Twitter [25] .
Rivigo is a logistics company that pioneered the global-first driver relay model. Elevation Capital led the Series A round [26] and the second round in Rivigo [27] . Subsequently, Rivigo has raised capital from leading PE fund Warburg Pincus [28] [29] .
Founded in 2013, NoBroker.com is a platform that connects property owners and prospective tenants, eliminating the layer of brokers and middlemen [30] . Elevation Capital led the Series A for NoBroker in 2015 [31] . NoBroker since then has raised capital from global investors like Tiger Global and General Atlantic [32] and again with Elevation Capital in Series C [33] .
Acko General Insurance is a private sector general insurance company in India [34] . Acko raised a seed round from Elevation Capital, Accel Partners and other high profile angel investors [35] . Subsequently, Acko has raised capital from Amazon, RPS Ventures and Binny Bansal [36] .
Fareye’s predictive logistics platform allows enterprises to orchestrate, track and optimize their logistics operations. Fareye raised a Series A funding from Elevation Capital [37] . Other investors in Fareye include M12, the venture arm of Microsoft, DHL group, Eight Roads Ventures and Honeywell Ventures [38] .
Aye Finance is an NBFC that provides business loans to micro and small businesses. Aye Finance raised seed funding from Elevation Capital [39] . Subsequently, Aye has raised capital from FalconEdge, CapitalG, A91 Partners [40] .
Chaayos is one of India’s largest chai (tea) cafe chains. Chaayos raised from Elevation Capital in their Series B round [41] and other rounds as well [42] . Other investors in Chaayos include Think Investments, Tiger Global Management, and Integrated Capital [43] .
Spinny is an online platform for selling used cars that launched in 2015. It raised a Series A funding from Elevation Capital in 2019 [44] and also in Series B in early 2020 [45] .
Elevation Capital (earlier known as SAIF Partners) joined other Venture Capital funds and startups in India to support innovation to counter Covid 19 called ACT Grants. ACT offers grants, ranging between ₹1 lakh and ₹10 crore, to startups and initiatives that use technology to create large-scale impact in the detection, prevention and eradication of covid-19. ACT Grants has raised about ₹100 crore from over 50 venture capital firms, startup founders, non-profit organisations and industry veterans [53] .
Awards |
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VCCircle Exit of the year 2017 [54] |
Venture Intelligence Apex Best Growth capital investor 2013 [55] |
Venture Intelligence Apex New Fund Raise of the Year 2017 [56] |
Venture Intelligence Apex Exit of the Year 2017 [57] |
Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.
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Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional operating funds in London, India and China.
Lightspeed Venture Partners is an American venture capital firm focusing on early-stage investments in the enterprise technology and consumer space. To date, the firm has backed more than 300 companies, including Snapchat, DoubleClick and AppDynamics.
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Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and financial technology company, based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Paytm is currently available in 11 Indian languages and offers online use-cases like mobile recharges, utility bill payments, travel, movies, and events bookings as well as in-store payments at grocery stores, fruits and vegetable shops, restaurants, parking, tolls, pharmacies and educational institutions with the Paytm QR code. California-based PayPal filed a case against Paytm in the Indian trademark office for using a logo with a similar color combination to its own on 18 November 2016. As of January 2018, Paytm is valued at $10 billion.
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Acko General Insurance is a private sector general insurance company in India. Founded in November 2016, the company received its license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) in September 2017. Acko follows an online-led model and hence all operations for the company are offered through the digital platform.
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