3one4 Capital's New Opportunity Fund to Build the Indian Startup EcosystemThe enterprise has launched its dedicated Opportunity Fund - Continuum I with a target corpus of INR 350 cr ($50 million) and has completed its first close for commitments of INR 150 cr

3one4 Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Bangalore, India, is taking a deep dive into growing the Indian startup ecosystem.

The enterprise has launched its dedicated Opportunity Fund - Continuum I with a target corpus of INR 350 cr ($50 million) and has completed its first close for commitments of INR 150 cr.

In a conversation withEntrepreneur India, 3One4 Capital's CIOPranav Paisaid, "The goal of this fund is to look at the best companies coming out of our current 3One4 Network portfolio and invest in them from the growth stage. This is normally done for a VC fund. We want to continue investing in these companies. This is a larger corpus to dive deeper into our portfolio companies."

The fund raise is expected to assist 3One4Capital's own current portfolio companies raise while Pai said their LPs have allowed the firm flexibility to look at other companies also, so it wouldn't be constrained to invest in just its portfolio.

"I am most excited about how on the consumer side, there are more services being developed – these could be direct to consumer. At a more fundamental level, we need to build intelligent services to make our lives easier. We call it consumer data services. We are very excited about funding new companies in that area; very few companies exist in the space. From the industrial standpoint, how do I use this data to make my working better is what will decide the next leap of growth. Building all of that is a focus area," Pai explained in a telephonic conversation.

The firm has a good diversity of geographies investing in 3One4Capital. It has investors from 4 countries – India, Japan, US and Singapore.

Roping in first-time investor to Indian markets, Japan's Sojitz Corporation, 3One4 Capital has set its eyes on the growth stage of its companies namely in Series B and Series C investment with cheque sizes between $3 million to $ 5 million.

3one4 Capital Fund I was launched early in 2016 with a corpus of INR 100 cr. Its Fund II for INR 250 cr was oversubscribed and subsequently launched in 2017.

The fund's focus areas include machine-driven actionable intelligence services for the enterprise, enterprise automation, ambient intelligence technologies, consumer products, fintech, media and multi-lingual content generation, and health.

1. ENTERPRISE INTELLIGENCE & AUTOMATION

New frameworks and automated workflows that drive better decision-making and improve productivity across multiple focus areas.

2. MEDIA & CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

Multi-format & multi-lingual content that can exploit new distribution strategies to serve rapidly evolving consumption behaviours.

3. FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES

Helping a new generation earn, spend, save, and multiply smarter with highly accessible and multi-modal services.

4. AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE

Leveling-up conventional practice in farming, supply chain, construction, and manufacturing through data-driven routines and technology-laced playbooks on the edge.

5. CONSUMER DATA GENERATION

Platforms and technology-enabled services to develop deep consumer behavioral insights that can be leveraged across the ecosystem.

6. HEALTH

Core innovation to augment research and the development of products and services that can elongate health spans and solve species-level challenges.

The firm manages a corpus of more than $100 million and a portfolio of more than 50 investments across the early stage. 3one4's investments in India include Licious, Betterplace, ToneTag, DarwinBox, Faircent, Bugworks, Pocket Aces, and Tracxn among others.

3one4 Capital was founded by Pranav Pai and Siddarth Pai, sons of veteran investor and entrepreneur Mohandas Pai.