Fundamentum, run by Nandan Nilekani, raises $227 million for a second fund

22 Aug 2022 , 11:09 AM

Fundamentum Partnership, a venture capital firm run by Nandan Nilekani, has secured $227 million for its second fund, a substantial portion of which came from regional business owners and their private investment firms.

In 2017, Nilekani founded Fundamentum alongside Sanjeev Aggarwal of Helion. Nilekani is also the co-founder and board chairman of Infosys NSE-0.32%.

Its initial fund had a value of roughly $100 million. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a Canadian pension fund and institutional investor, invested as a limited partner (LP) in it in 2018.

With the new fund, which is larger than its prior fund by a factor of two, Nilekani’s Fundamentum will continue to lead and co-lead series B and series C deals. The new fund is in discussions with institutional investors as well, and if those discussions are successful, the fund’s size could rise to around $250 million.

The Fundamentum team has contributed one-fourth of the new fund’s capital. Along with Pratik Jain, a principal at the venture fund, Ashish Kumar is a third cofounder and general partner at the fund, in addition to Nilekani and Aggarwal.

With its first fund, Fundamentum invested in six startups, including unicorns like PharmEasy and the used automobile marketplace Spinny. According to Nilekani, the fund would keep placing focused bets rather than invest in companies “spray and pray.”