KKRBACKED AVENDUS BUYS PE COMPANY ZODIUS CAPITAL

MUMBAI: Avendus Capital Pvt Ltd, a financial services provider backed by private equity firm (PE) KKR & Co LP, has acquired technology-focused PE company Zodius Capital Advisors, an early investor in start-ups like online furniture retailer Pepperfry and grocery site Bigbasket, according to senior management at Avendus and Zodius.

Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Zodius was founded by Neeraj Bhargava, former CEO of business process outsourcing firm WNS Global Services Ltd, along with Gautam Patel and Shilpa Kulkarni. At present, there are three funds under the Zodius platform—a first independent fund of $20 million and two funds launched along with Avendus worth $110 million and $30 million, respectively.

In 2014, Zodius partnered with Avendus to raise $500 million to invest in firms in the high growth digital and SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud)-based business services.

Avendus, which has purchased the Zodius platform and the brand, will continue to launch future funds under the Zodius brand name and the existing Zodius team will continue to manage the funds until they exit the investments. Shilpa Kulkarni, MD at Zodius Capital, will lead the new fund raising efforts while Neeraj Bhargava will be the chairperson of the investment committee.

“The digital opportunity continues to grow on the back of positive moves by the government like demonetisation and GST. Avendus expects 20% of India’s GDP to come from digital opportunities over the next 10 years,” said Ranu Vohra, co-founder, MD and CEO, Avendus Capital.

Avendus also plans to launch a $250-million fund targeting growth opportunities in consumer and digital sectors under the Zodius platform.