Kresha Gupta, a 24-year-old Chartered Accountant (CA) based in Ahmedabad has become one of the youngest woman investors in the country to launch a fund focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups.
Chanakya Opportunities Fund I, a Category II Alternative Investment Fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), announced the launch of a ₹100 crore sector-agnostic SME and start-up focused fund with a green shoe option of another ₹100 crore.
The fund is part of the Chanakya Fund Trust, which got approval last month from the capital markets regulator to launch a Cat 2 AIF.
“Our goal is to create world-class investment products at competitive costs for investors in Indian markets. We will develop and launch products under this aegis,” said Gupta.
Chanakya Opportunities Fund I is our first offering. We are planning to raise ₹100 crore in the first year. This is a close-ended fund, and we will be accepting subscriptions for the tenure of five years from the first close with a maximum of two extensions of one year each,” she added.
The fund will invest in profitable SMEs with high-potential opportunities in the unorganised sectors. About 51 per cent of the corpus will be invested in unlisted SME companies, termed start-ups in manufacturing, consumer products, and technology.
The fund will provide exit opportunities through primary markets as it intends to invest in companies that have the potential to get listed on SME exchanges with small ticket-sized public issues.
Chanakya Opportunities Fund I is a closed-ended scheme that plans to invest in around 25-30 companies with a ticket size ranging from 2 crore to ₹10 crore per company.
While the fund will follow strong filtration and due diligence process to identify the best investment ideas, investors with a time horizon of greater than one year can look at investing in the scheme.
The fund aims to raise capital from resident and non-resident Indians, high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), banks, accredited investors, corporates, and trusts.
Having started her career with Vodafone Idea, she has been tracking the equity markets for more than five years and has been consulting and advising companies aiming to go public on the SME exchange while pursuing her CA degree.
