'India has fewer high-quality deals relative to fund supply'

Zephyr Peacock India, a growth capital investor that has backed firms such as Ripplr, MPower Financing, and 20Cube Logistics, is looking to float its fourth India-focused fund by December-end

- Malvika Maloo

The local arm of New York-based Zephyr Management had struck seven deals from its third India-focused fund worth $100 million. It has also made eight exits in India so far, either through strategic or secondary sales, or IPOS. In addition, one of its portfolio companies, 20Cube, is planning a public listing.

In an interview, Mukul Gulati, managing partner at Zephyr Peacock, spoke about the firm's investment strategy and plans for the new fund. Edited excerpts:

What are your preferred sectors, and what is the rationale for selecting them? 

There are three sectors: financial services, food and agriculture, and technology services related to infrastructure. First, these sectors are growing. Second, within these massive sectors, there are white spaces and opportunities where market leadership is not established yet, where a new entrant that we are backing has the opportunity to become a leader in its sub-segment. You don't want to go to fully established mature places because that game is already over. You want to go into new areas.

So, within these sectors, we are going to focus on emerging spaces where the market leadership is still not established and the industry lends itself to disruption and innovation.

How many investments have you made from the third fund so far? Is it fully deployed?

Since 2019, we have been investing from the fund that does early to growth-stage investments. That fund