Rakesh Malhotra, founder of inverter maker Luminous Power Technologies, who was instrumental in bringing home Rs 14 billion by selling 74 per cent of his company’s stake to French energy giant, Schneider Electric, has forayed into venture capital.
He has established Ncubate Capital Partners to fund small and medium enterprises across the country and is in talks to raise about $150-200 for the venture amid tough market conditions.
So far, the firm has a ready corpus of $40 million, of which about $30 million has been put by Malhotra himself. He has raised another $10 million from an NBFC in India.
“The market is tough for fund-raising as competition is immense with too many firms looking to raise funds,” said Malhotra. “I am in talks with both global and domestic investors to raise the capital as I want to diversify my LP base.”
At Ncubate, Malhotra plans to fund mid-sized or even small privately-held companies and make long-term growth investments. The firm is looking to build a portfolio of 12-15 companies over the next four years.
Malhotra said his is a sector agnostic fund even as his preferred areas of investments are consumer durables, food and FMCG, renewable energy and cleantech, among others. Currently at Ncubate there are six partners who have all been entrepreneurs once.
