Mumbai: MicroVC firm Artha Venture Fund-I has clocked 19x return on its partial exit from its investment in Everest Fleet, a fleet management company.
The fund bagged $2 million from its part stake sale in the company. The stake sale is part of the Series B funding round of $20 million that Everest Fleet raised from investors led by Uber and Paragon Partners.
Artha Venture Fund reports an IRR of 105% and a MoIC of 19x from its exit. The fund has invested ₹10 crore in the company in 2019. “LPs who invested directly alongside Artha have exited partial stakes with corresponding returns,” the firm said in a release.
“Everest Fleet confronted seemingly insurmountable challenges during the pandemic, facing a substantial setback. Yet, the resilience and innovative mindset of the founding team shone through. Their pivot to an asset-financing model unlocked considerable capital and enabled them to transition to an asset-light model in a traditionally capital-intensive sector,” said Anirudh A Damani, Managing Partner at Artha Venture Fund. According to the release, Everest Fleet has been profitable for the last two financial years (FY 22 and FY 23).
This is Artha Group’s 31st exit from its portfolio of more than 100 startups. The company is expecting a full exit from Everest to be a fund returner, which means more than the total size of the fund. The fund that counts companies such as AgniKul, LenDenClub, Everest Fleet, Daalchini, Elev8 India Sportz, among others as its portfolio is now holding a high single digit stake in the company which it plans to exit in the run up to the company’s planned IPO in next 24-36 months.
The company is expecting a full exit from Everest to be a fund returner, which means more than the total size of the fund.