Unitus closes fundraising for India Fund

BENGALURU: Impact investor Unitus, backed by Mohandas Pai and Ranjan Pai, has completed fundraising for Unitus Seed Fund, a SEBI-registered seed fund at Rs 36 crore. The new investors, including Anil Rai Gupta of Havells, Harsh and Rishabh Mariwala of Marico, as well as Ajay Parekh from Pidilite among others who have put in Rs 12 crore together. “We are pleased to have the support of these business leaders in our rupee fund,” said Dave Richards, managing partner, Unitus Seed Fund.

Other investors in this round include KK Natarajan of Mindtree, Vikram Gandhi from VSG Capital/Asha Impact, and Pramod Bhasin of Genpact. Unitus has also raised an offshore seed fund creating a combined corpus of Rs 140 crore ($23 million) for investing exclusively in India. To date, Unitus has announced 16 investments in India in sectors including healthcare, education, mobile, e-commerce, retail and agriculture.

It expects to invest in another 12-16 companies with these funds. Alongside, it has made a maiden investment in iMMi Life as part of the StartHealth Program it launched in February this year.

The Chennai-based company has secured funding of Rs 50 Lakh of non-dilutive capital and support from StartHealth partners Unitus, PATH, Manipal Hospitals, Narayana Health, and Pfizer. Additionally, iMMi Life will receive a seed investment from Unitus Seed Fund based on the success of the pilot.