Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has pumped $100 million in Vani Kola’s early stage venture capital fund Kalaari Capital. The investment was made through RIL’s digital arm, Jio Platforms. A leading daily reported that Reliance will invest an additional $100 million in Kalaari within the next year.
The deal is RIL’s very first investment in a VC fund and will be one of the largest investments by an Indian conglomerate in an Indian VC firm so far.
Kalaari Capital is an early stage focused VC fund that invests in technology oriented startups. Founded by technopreneur turned investor Vani Kola, the firm has backed successful startups such as SnapDeal, Dream11, CureFit, InstaMojo, UrbanLadder among various others.
Over the past few months, Reliance and its subsidiaries have acquired a plethora of startups that were backed by Kalaari of which Urban Ladder and Zivame are most popular.
Speaking through an email interaction, a Reliance spokesperson told a leading daily, “Reliance remains committed to supporting the build-up of a thriving startup ecosystem in India, particularly in digital enablement space, and will continue to explore various avenues to do so.”
Kalaari currently manages assets worth $650 million. For the past few years, the firm has been on the lookout to raise its fourth fund. Vani had announced in Jan 2019 that Kalaari was targeting to raise $200 million but no further information was led out.
