Avendus Future Leaders Fund
Avendus Future Leaders Fund (‘the Fund’) is focused on investing in ‘best of breed’ market leaders/ emerging leaders with the objective of mid-long term value creation. The Fund leverages the strengths of the Avendus ecosystem – its network, relationships and industry insights and invests minority stakes in late stage companies. Core sectors of focus for the Fund are digital technologies, consumption and financial services.
The Fund, is managed by an experienced management team with over 40+ years of investment and deal making expertise.
The first series of the Fund was launched in 2019 and has made ten investments to date – Bikaji Foods, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Lenskart Solutions, National Stock Exchange, Delhivery, VerSe Innovation (Dailyhunt), SBI General Insurance, Licious, Juspay and Xpressbees. More information about these investments can be found in the ‘Portfolio Companies’ section.
The second series of the Fund was launched in 2021 and has made ten investments to date – SBI General Insurance, Licious, Zeta, Lenskart, Xpressbees, NSE, Indegene, Veritas Finance & First Cry.
The third series of the Fund was launched in May 2024 and the first close securing commitments of INR 850 crore was announced in January 2025.
For more information about the Fund, reach out to us at flf@avendus.com
The Fund is designed to create value for its investors by investing opportunistically in ‘best of breed’ late stage private companies.
The Fund pursues a unique and differentiated strategy by focusing primarily on opportunistic situations for investment. The Fund is indifferent between primary and secondary investments and offers a quick turnaround to companies/ entrepreneurs.
Target Sectors
Digital Technologies, Consumption and Financial Services
Investment Size
USD 10-30 million per transaction, minority stake
Mar 2024
Current Status: Active
Avanse Financial
Founded in 2013, Avanse is India’s second largest education-focused NBFC providing hyper-personalised education financing solutions to aspiring Indian students. Its range of solutions covers overseas education loans as well as growth and working capital loans to educational institutes in India. Avanse is backed by marquee investors including Warburg Pincus, Kedaara Capital, IFC and Mubadala Investment Company.
Nov 2023
Current Status: Active
FirstCry
FirstCry is India’s largest and one of Asia’s largest omni-channel retail platform for baby and kids products, retailing fashionwear, apparel, toys, gaming, diapers, and other momcare and babycare products. It operates India’s largest and most extensive physical retail network with 900+ stores in 450+ cities across India, alongside an established online ecosystem with ~8 mn unique transacting customers, and also has a growing international presence in the UAE and KSA.
July 2023
Current Status: Active
Veritas Finance
Founded in 2015, Veritas is one of India’s fastest-growing scaled and pure-play MSME lenders with a presence across 341 branches across 9 states in South and East India. It operates on a business model focused on secured loans that are primarily backed by self-owned residential properties. The Company caters to the short-term working capital, medium-term business loan and long-term housing finance needs of the MSME segment.
March 2023
Current Status: Active
Indegene
Indegene is a life sciences focused IT solutions provider operating in commercialization services. It works as a leading partner to 19 out of the Top 20 global bio-pharma companies (including Pfizer, GSK, Novartis, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Abbott, and J&J) for the digital and AI driven transformation of their commercial, medical, regulatory and R&D operations. The Company operates across USA, UK, Europe, China, Japan and India.
July 2022
Current Status: Active
Xpressbees
Xpressbees is one of the fastest-growing end-to-end logistics companies. In addition to its e-commerce (B2C) division, Xpressbees’ vision to evolve into a strong full-service logistics organization is reflected in its new lines of businesses like 3PL, B2B Xpress, and cross-border operations. With its nationwide network covering over 20,000 pin codes, and 80K+ associations, Xpressbees is delivering happiness to India through an ecosystem of nearly 100,000+ families.
March 2022
Current Status: Active
Juspay
Juspay unifies payment gateways to provide e-commerce merchants with a seamless, secure, reliable, end-to-end and enterprise-grade payment stack. This allows its Customer base, which includes the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Meesho, Airtel, Big Basket and Tata Cliq to achieve higher revenue at lower costs.
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Zeta
Zeta is a leading provider of cloud-based software for financial institutions like banks and fintech companies. Zeta counts amongst its customers over 10 banks and 25 FinTechs, across 8 countries, including Sodexo, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, RBL Bank among others.
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Licious
Licious is India’s leading D2C brand operating in the meat and seafood category. Headquartered in Bangalore, and with a presence in 14 other cities, the company follows a farm to fork model where it owns the entire back-end supply chain from procurement to processing, storage and delivery while maintaining the quality and freshness of each product that reaches the consumer. At the time of investment, Licious had successfully delivered to more than 2 million unique customers, with a high degree of repeat purchase.
Sep 2021
Current Status: Active
SBI General Insurance Company Limited
SBI General commenced its operations as a joint venture between State Bank of India (‘SBI Bank’) and Insurance Australia Group (‘IAG’). Pursuant to stake sale by IAG in March 2020, SBI Bank now owns 70% in the company, while the balance is held by multiple private equity funds. The company offers a complete suite of products catering to the insurance needs of the retail and the commercial sectors.
May 2021
Current Status: Active
VerSe Innovation
Dailyhunt is India’s leading news aggregator focused on the vernacular medium. Based in Bengaluru and owned by Ver Se Innovation, Dailyhunt serves content in 14 Indian languages across a mix of categories including news, entertainment, lifestyle, hyperlocal etc. The Company has also recently launched a short video app called Josh, which has grown rapidly to become one of the largest apps in the social engagement category in the country.
March 2021
Current Status: Exited
Delhivery
Delhivery is India’s leading non-captive ecommerce focused logistics and supply chain platform. The company operates India’s largest express parcel transportation network with fully integrated and self-owned pickup, mid-mile and delivery operations. The company delivers across 17,500+ pin codes and 2,300+ cities across India (as at end 2020).
Feb 2021
Current Status: Active
NSE
NSE is the largest stock exchange in India. The products on the Exchange are organized into three asset classes for trading: Capital market for the listing and trading of equities (stocks, ETFs including indices based on the NIFTY50 index etc.), fixed income securities (Gsecs, corporate bonds etc.) and the derivatives market (contracts on equity, indices, currency, interest rates and commodities).
July 2020
Current Status: Active
lenskart.com
Lenskart is the largest player in the Indian branded eyewear & accessories market. Based in New Delhi, Lenskart has a unique omnichannel retail model present across online, offline and even home based sales channels. It has 658 exclusive brand outlets across India (as of January 2021).
Nov 2019
Current Status: Partially Exited
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank
Ujjivan is one of the leading small finance banks in India. Based in Bengaluru, the bank has a pan India franchise across 24 states/UTs represented by 575 branches and serving nearly 5.7 million customers (as of December 2020).
May 2019
Current Status: Exited
Bikaji Foods
Bikaji is one of India’s leading ethnic snacks companies. Based in Bikaner, Rajasthan, the company has a wide product portfolio consisting of both traditional savoury snacks (bhujia and namkeen) as well as new age snacks including wafers, chips etc. Its products are sold across nearly 20 states in India.
Overview-
Avendus Future Leaders Fund (‘the Fund’) is focused on investing in ‘best of breed’ market leaders/ emerging leaders with the objective of mid-long term value creation. The Fund leverages the strengths of the Avendus ecosystem – its network, relationships and industry insights and invests minority stakes in late stage companies. Core sectors of focus for the Fund are digital technologies, consumption and financial services.
The Fund, is managed by an experienced management team with over 40+ years of investment and deal making expertise.
The first series of the Fund was launched in 2019 and has made ten investments to date – Bikaji Foods, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Lenskart Solutions, National Stock Exchange, Delhivery, VerSe Innovation (Dailyhunt), SBI General Insurance, Licious, Juspay and Xpressbees. More information about these investments can be found in the ‘Portfolio Companies’ section.
The second series of the Fund was launched in 2021 and has made ten investments to date – SBI General Insurance, Licious, Zeta, Lenskart, Xpressbees, NSE, Indegene, Veritas Finance & First Cry.
The third series of the Fund was launched in May 2024 and the first close securing commitments of INR 850 crore was announced in January 2025.
For more information about the Fund, reach out to us at flf@avendus.com
Investment Strategy+
The Fund is designed to create value for its investors by investing opportunistically in ‘best of breed’ late stage private companies.
The Fund pursues a unique and differentiated strategy by focusing primarily on opportunistic situations for investment. The Fund is indifferent between primary and secondary investments and offers a quick turnaround to companies/ entrepreneurs.
Target Sectors
Digital Technologies, Consumption and Financial Services
Investment Size
USD 10-30 million per transaction, minority stake
Fund Managers+
Portfolio Companies+
Mar 2024
Current Status: Active
Avanse Financial
Founded in 2013, Avanse is India’s second largest education-focused NBFC providing hyper-personalised education financing solutions to aspiring Indian students. Its range of solutions covers overseas education loans as well as growth and working capital loans to educational institutes in India. Avanse is backed by marquee investors including Warburg Pincus, Kedaara Capital, IFC and Mubadala Investment Company.
Nov 2023
Current Status: Active
FirstCry
FirstCry is India’s largest and one of Asia’s largest omni-channel retail platform for baby and kids products, retailing fashionwear, apparel, toys, gaming, diapers, and other momcare and babycare products. It operates India’s largest and most extensive physical retail network with 900+ stores in 450+ cities across India, alongside an established online ecosystem with ~8 mn unique transacting customers, and also has a growing international presence in the UAE and KSA.
July 2023
Current Status: Active
Veritas Finance
Founded in 2015, Veritas is one of India’s fastest-growing scaled and pure-play MSME lenders with a presence across 341 branches across 9 states in South and East India. It operates on a business model focused on secured loans that are primarily backed by self-owned residential properties. The Company caters to the short-term working capital, medium-term business loan and long-term housing finance needs of the MSME segment.
March 2023
Current Status: Active
Indegene
Indegene is a life sciences focused IT solutions provider operating in commercialization services. It works as a leading partner to 19 out of the Top 20 global bio-pharma companies (including Pfizer, GSK, Novartis, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Abbott, and J&J) for the digital and AI driven transformation of their commercial, medical, regulatory and R&D operations. The Company operates across USA, UK, Europe, China, Japan and India.
July 2022
Current Status: Active
Xpressbees
Xpressbees is one of the fastest-growing end-to-end logistics companies. In addition to its e-commerce (B2C) division, Xpressbees’ vision to evolve into a strong full-service logistics organization is reflected in its new lines of businesses like 3PL, B2B Xpress, and cross-border operations. With its nationwide network covering over 20,000 pin codes, and 80K+ associations, Xpressbees is delivering happiness to India through an ecosystem of nearly 100,000+ families.
March 2022
Current Status: Active
Juspay
Juspay unifies payment gateways to provide e-commerce merchants with a seamless, secure, reliable, end-to-end and enterprise-grade payment stack. This allows its Customer base, which includes the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Meesho, Airtel, Big Basket and Tata Cliq to achieve higher revenue at lower costs.
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Zeta
Zeta is a leading provider of cloud-based software for financial institutions like banks and fintech companies. Zeta counts amongst its customers over 10 banks and 25 FinTechs, across 8 countries, including Sodexo, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, RBL Bank among others.
Oct 2021
Current Status: Active
Licious
Licious is India’s leading D2C brand operating in the meat and seafood category. Headquartered in Bangalore, and with a presence in 14 other cities, the company follows a farm to fork model where it owns the entire back-end supply chain from procurement to processing, storage and delivery while maintaining the quality and freshness of each product that reaches the consumer. At the time of investment, Licious had successfully delivered to more than 2 million unique customers, with a high degree of repeat purchase.
Sep 2021
Current Status: Active
SBI General Insurance Company Limited
SBI General commenced its operations as a joint venture between State Bank of India (‘SBI Bank’) and Insurance Australia Group (‘IAG’). Pursuant to stake sale by IAG in March 2020, SBI Bank now owns 70% in the company, while the balance is held by multiple private equity funds. The company offers a complete suite of products catering to the insurance needs of the retail and the commercial sectors.
May 2021
Current Status: Active
VerSe Innovation
Dailyhunt is India’s leading news aggregator focused on the vernacular medium. Based in Bengaluru and owned by Ver Se Innovation, Dailyhunt serves content in 14 Indian languages across a mix of categories including news, entertainment, lifestyle, hyperlocal etc. The Company has also recently launched a short video app called Josh, which has grown rapidly to become one of the largest apps in the social engagement category in the country.
March 2021
Current Status: Exited
Delhivery
Delhivery is India’s leading non-captive ecommerce focused logistics and supply chain platform. The company operates India’s largest express parcel transportation network with fully integrated and self-owned pickup, mid-mile and delivery operations. The company delivers across 17,500+ pin codes and 2,300+ cities across India (as at end 2020).
Feb 2021
Current Status: Active
NSE
NSE is the largest stock exchange in India. The products on the Exchange are organized into three asset classes for trading: Capital market for the listing and trading of equities (stocks, ETFs including indices based on the NIFTY50 index etc.), fixed income securities (Gsecs, corporate bonds etc.) and the derivatives market (contracts on equity, indices, currency, interest rates and commodities).
July 2020
Current Status: Active
lenskart.com
Lenskart is the largest player in the Indian branded eyewear & accessories market. Based in New Delhi, Lenskart has a unique omnichannel retail model present across online, offline and even home based sales channels. It has 658 exclusive brand outlets across India (as of January 2021).
Nov 2019
Current Status: Partially Exited
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank
Ujjivan is one of the leading small finance banks in India. Based in Bengaluru, the bank has a pan India franchise across 24 states/UTs represented by 575 branches and serving nearly 5.7 million customers (as of December 2020).