Close to a year after the first close of its US$200 million investment vehicle, Amicus Capital Partners has finally made its maiden investment in online insurance aggregator RenewBuy with a cheque size worth Rs. 60 crore (about US$9.2 million).
Mahesh Parasuraman, the Co-Founder and Partner at Amicus Capital said RenewBuy is poised for growth. “We are highly impressed with RenewBuy’s differentiated and capital-efficient approach to finding a unique digital solution for insurance distribution.”
Founded by Parasuraman and Sunil Theckath Vasudevan, Amicus Capital is a classic growth equity firm that provides capital to companies aiming to scale up a proven business model. It deploys capital from its sole US$200 million investment vehicle which is said to reach the final closing by March next year.
Investors that participated in the fund include a mix of international institutional investors and family offices. Only a small pool of capital came from India, which included entrepreneurs the firm have supported in the past and some domestic family offices.
However, using this fund, the Bengaluru-based investment firm is looking to build portfolio between 10 to 12 companies. It is looking for startups mainly involved in four sectors – financial services, consumer, healthcare, and technology – with an investment size of around US$8 to US$20 million.
Another focus is that the firm plans to take significant minority investments. According to Parasuraman, the ideal situation is for Amicus Capital to be the first institutional investor to work with good entrepreneurs and help the build the companies as they scale.
The deployment strategy for this fund is a four year period and investments will spread across the period as to not get caught up in one business or valuation cycle. The initial prediction, according to Parasuraman is that they will do at least 2 to 3 years annually.
On the other hand, Amicus Capital is also looking for co-investors to increase the investment capital up to US$30 to US$35 million.
