Inventus Capital bets on start-ups in hardware

Technology-focused venture capital (VC) fund Inventus Capital Partners, which earlier invested in software-based companies, is now exploring hardware start-ups. The Silicon Valley- and Bengaluru-based early-stage fund has placed bets on Bluarmor, which manufactures tech-laden smart motorcycle helmets.

Inventus, along with venture fund Kitven, had led a $1.4million Series A round in the start-up last month.

“Traditionally, we used to invest predominantly in internet-based companies and stayed away from hardware as India did not have the strength in the segment. Also hardware could be copied by Chinese start-ups as they had stronger manufacturing capabilities. So, most of the VCS stayed away from them,” said Rutvik Doshi, managing director, Inventus Capital Partners.

“But in the last three-four years, the way technologies have evolved, hardware is no longer a standalone... it plays along with software,” Doshi added.

The company’s other two India managing partners are Samir Kumar and Parag Dhol.

The India unit of the earlystage fund, which has invested in 27 start-ups, closed its third fund in October last year at ~370 crore. From this corpus, the firm is looking to invest in 14-15 start-ups, including five this year. While the firm is looking at investing anywhere between ~5 crore and ~15 crore in each, the funding amount can go up to ~40 crore depending on the performance of the start-up. A fourth fund could be announced by the end of next year.

From Inventus III, the VC firm has made five bets so far, including Bluarmor, enterprise start-up Worxogo, augmented reality-based toy venture Playshifu, local discovery platform LBB, and blockchain-based start-up Koinearth.

The firm had made three successful exits last December, including Policybazaar, Aasaanjobs and Funtoot. Inventus Capital’s partial stake sale in Policybazaar to Softbank earned the company a 15-times return at over ~170 crore. It had made a 22-times return on investment when it sold its stake in Redbus to South African media conglomerate Naspers’ Indian arm in 2013, said Doshi.