Aavishkaar eyeing more local start-ups

Indian investment firm Aavishkaar which made its second foray in Sri Lanka by investing in logistics solutions provider Grasshoppers Pvt Ltd is setting its sight on more, early- stage firms, officials said.

"We are in discussion with companies in agriculture and technology," Sanchayan Chakraborty, Partner at Aavishkaar Venture Management Services Pvt Ltd told the Business Times in a telephone interview. Last year, Aavishkaar through its Frontier Fund which is a regional fund through which Aavishkaar invests in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia had invested in Sri Lankan firm Ma's Tropical Foods. The investment in Grasshoppers is the fifth investment by Aavishkaar's Frontier Fund. They made more than 50 investments and currently manage US$ 200 million of funds.

Mr. Chakraborty added that they are now discussing with local firms in agriculture and technology. But they cannot tell a timeline when these will materialise into actual businesses for them. The company based in Mumbai sees great potential in Sri Lankan - especially in its post war growth. "We have seen disruptive innovations in the logistics sector by tech- enabled players in other markets and are very bullish on the success of Grasshoppers in Sri Lanka," Mr. Chakraborty said. Grasshoppers founded by Dulith Herath, founder of ecommerce firm Kapruka.com, and Harsha Liyanage, the founder of Sarvodaya Fusion, a not-for-profit organisation promoting IT education across Sri Lanka, plans to use this latest funding to set up an island-wide distribution network that would provide the local communities participating in the business model with income opportunities.

"Grasshoppers has developed a proprietary technology stack that facilitates interactions within its logistics supply chain and provides features like traceability of goods through its network to its clients and this is the type of company which assists in livelihood generation (for youngsters who want parttime employment for an example) that we are interested in," Mr. Chakraborty added.

In the family owned company, MA's Foods, which celebrated its 31st year, is pushing ahead with a new phase of growth with this fund infusing Rs. 300 million.

Aavishkaar is a VC firm focused on early- stage venture capital investments in enterprises working with low-income population in rural and underserved markets.

Aavishkaar Frontier Fund was launched in 2013 and had earlier backed US- and Indonesia-based seafood firm North Atlantic Inc. and Bangladesh-based payment solutions provider CloudWell Ltd.