Press Release
ChrysCapital, Motilal Oswal Private Equity and Sequoia Capital India have been named the top Private Equity & Venture Capital investors in India during the last decade, as part of Venture Intelligence’s APEX Awards. The Venture Intelligence “Awards for Private Equity Excellence” (APEX) is dedicated to celebrating the best that the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital industry has to offer.
While ChrysCapital won the “Private Equity Investor of the Decade” award, Motilal Oswal Private Equity was feted as India’s “Growth Capital Investor of the Decade”. The Indian arm of the storied Silicon Valley VC firm, Sequoia Capital, was named the country’s “Venture Capital Investor of the Decade”.
The APEX Awardees are selected based on both Self Nomination by the participating PE-VC firms as well as "crowd sourced" nominations and voting from the Limited Partner, PE-VC and advisory communities. (The main criteria were Exit Track Record, New Fund Raises & Follow-on Funding Rounds for Portfolio Companies).
Private Equity Investor of the Decade - ChrysCapital
Founded in 1999, ChrysCapital has raised $4 billion across eight private equity funds. Since its founder transition in 2011, ChrysCapital has grown from strength to strength, raising $2 billion across its latest three funds, investing $2 billion in 30+ companies, and realizing $3.4 billion from almost 40 full exits. The firm closed Fund VIII in December 2018 at its hard cap of $850 million within a span of about 4 months.
Speaking about the firm’s ability to provide healthy returns across cycles, Kunal Shroff, Managing Partner at ChrysCapital said, "Our strategy over the past two decades has been quite consistent: partner with best-in-class entrepreneurs in attractive sectors, help them take their companies to the next level by providing strategic guidance and driving value-added initiatives at the operating level, and always keeping a sharp focus on providing liquidity to our investors through timely exits. We have also been very fortunate to have an illustrious set of LPs, many of whom have supported the firm over multiple funds. Finally, none of this would be possible without the tireless work and commitment of the ChrysCapital team, most of whom have spent the majority of their careers at the firm. All these factors have helped us successfully navigate multiple economic cycles, as well as changes in market conditions and sectoral opportunities.”
ChrysCapital’s notable exits over the last decade include Mankind Pharma (27% $-IRR), AU Small Finance Bank (49% $-IRR), Torrent Pharma (48% $-IRR), LTI (45% $-IRR), LiquidHub (sold to Capgemini for ~$500 million at a 40% $-IRR in one of the largest strategic exits by an Indian PE firm), City Union Bank (33% $-IRR), Eris Lifesciences (31% $-IRR, taken public in 2017 in the largest pharma IPO in India), amongst many others. The firm’s notable investments in the recent past have been Intas Pharmaceuticals, Mankind Pharma, Hero FinCorp, Dream Sports, Quest Global, GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, amongst others.
Growth Capital Investor of the Decade - Motilal Oswal Private Equity
“It has been over 15 years since we started this platform and with no prior experience of private equity. From there to now receiving the award for Growth Capital Investor of the Decade is an honour for the entire team and we feel quite humbled accepting the same,” said Vishal Tulsyan, CEO & Managing Director of Motilal Oswal PE. “It somewhere also reinforces belief in our investment thesis, our relationship driven approach with all stakeholders and last but not the least our strong alignment of interest with our investors. It is also an outcome of our proprietary QGLP (Q – quality of business & management; G – growth; L – longevity; P – reasonable price) philosophy towards investing.”
Motilal Oswal Private Equity started its journey in 2007 having cumulatively raised and invested ~US$ 600mn in India, through its three growth capital funds (US$ 115mn for Fund I, US$ 155mn for Fund II and US$ 320mn for Fund III). Of over 12 exits, the Fund house has generated an MOIC of 6x and an IRR of ~28%. Some of its notable exits include Dixon Technologies (16.2x), AU Small Finance Bank (13.1x), Minda Industries Ltd (4.9x), Mrs Bector's Food Specialties Ltd (4.4x), Power Mech Projects Ltd (4.3x), Parag Milk Foods Ltd (4.3x) and Indian Energy Exchange (3.2x). Many of these companies have continued to make significant returns for subsequent investors as well. From its third fund, it has invested in path breaking companies like Molbio Diagnostics, which has created the world’s first commercial point of care molecular diagnostic platform using PCR technology for resource limited settings (Truenat) and is currently installed in over 40% of labs testing for Covid-19 in India. Recently, it has also invested in Fintech lending platform, Kreditbee, which provides full-stack digital lending for young professionals. Motilal Oswal PE has maintained a fine balance between domestic and foreign investors both on the HNI and Institutional front, as it believes Indian individual investors should be able to participate in the growth story of private enterprises, thus providing an opportunity for the investors to do so. Its Fund II and III have attracted international LPs like IFC, Aberdeen Standard, Axiom Asia, Adams Street Partners as well as Domestic Institutions like SBI, Max Life Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance.
“This award further validates our strong belief in the Indian mid-market ecosystem. Being an integral part of the growth journey of our portfolio companies and what they are looking to create fills us with immense pride. We remain confident of the entrepreneurs of the country, whom we believe will continue to build strong enterprises with their passion and perseverance, which will not only have a strong impact on the home market but will create ripples in global markets as well.” Mr. Tulsyan added.
Venture Capital Investor of the Decade - Sequoia Capital India
Sequoia Capital made its debut in India in 2006 and has closed seven funds so far, taking its assets under management for India & South East Asia to an estimated $5.4 Billion. Sequoia Capital India has taken two top-level team churns during the decade in its stride and notched up mega exits in the form of Byjus (21x) and Oyo (18.5x). Other Unicorns in its portfolio include Druva, OlaCabs, Freshworks, Mu Sigma, Zomato, Dailyhunt, Cars24, Unacademy and RazorPay. Sequoia - including via its Surge Accelerator program - continues to remain among the top active VC investors in Indian startups.
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