After backing 14 start-ups, early-stage venture capital (VC) firms, Ankur Capital is now evaluating to enter the venture debt space, said a top company executive.

“There is a possibility for us to provide venture debt in the space in addition to what we are already doing,” said Ritu Verma, co-founder and managing partner, Ankur Capital.

The Mumbai-headquartered VC firm, which recently closed the first round of its second fund at Rs 240 crore, is already in discussions to start a third fund that could run parallel with the second one. The second fund of Rs 350-crore is likely close by March, she added.

Founded in 2014 by Verma and former COO of Zee e-learning Rema Subramanian, Ankur Capital mostly focuses on start-ups, which nurture aspirations of the Indians and build technology-led solutions for the mass markets.

With the evolution of the VC market, Ankur Capital has also increased its ticket size and is looking at providing funds anywhere between $500,000 and $5 million in tranches to select start-ups from the second fund.

The company’s Fund-II saw the participation from CDC Group, the UK impact investor which has backed other domestic funds such as Aavishkaar and Ventureast. It also saw participation from existing LPs, including The Dutch Good Growth Fund and SIDBI which is investing out of its Fund of Funds Startup programme.

Out of the second fund which has a target corpus of Rs 350 crore, the VC firm is looking at investing in around 20 start-ups in a span of 3-4 years beginning this year. It is hoping to close the year with investments in around 7-8 start-ups from the second fund. "In the long-term, we aim to be the creator of about 500 successful start-ups coming out of India," said Verma.

FACT BOX

Ankur Capital

Fund I: Rs 50 crore

No. of investments: 14

Fund II: Rs 350 crore

No. of investments: 18-20 (expected)

LPs: CDC Group, DGGF, SIDBI