Building resilience against market cycles

*This article is adapted from * The Hindu Business Line

How diversification is a key ingredient in VC firm Vertex Ventures’ investment strategy.

Global venture capital firm Vertex Ventures South East Asia and India has closed its latest fund — Fund V — at $541 million, an 80 per cent jump over the $305 million raised by its previous fund in 2019. With a portfolio of over 80 companies spanning the consumer, fintech, SaaS, health, sustainability and mobility sectors, the firm has backed household names like Licious, Kissht, Kapiva, Pilgrim and KukuFM.

Kanika Mayar, Partner, discusses the firm’s investment playbook.

You’ve just closed a significantly larger fund. What does it mean for your strategy? To us, this reflects the confidence our LPs (limited partners) have in our track record and disciplined approach. The strategy remains consistent — backing exceptional founders early on; but with a larger fund, we have the firepower to participate meaningfully in follow-on rounds while maintaining a balanced portfolio.

What’s the strength of your current portfolio?

We’re sector-agnostic and back over companies across Southeast Asia and India. Many have become category leaders — Licious in fresh meat, Kissht in consumer lending, Kapiva in health and wellness, Pilgrim in beauty, Kazam in EV charging, and KukuFM in vernacular audio. The idea is diversification — not just to capture growth but also build resilience against market cycles.

What’s your investment thesis?

It boils down to three things: Is the market large enough in India or globally? Do the founders truly understand the problem and have the right to win? And can this be built into a profitable business at scale? We’ve always believed in long-term, high conviction partnerships. That means not just writing a cheque but also helping companies in business development, talent recruitment, and introducing them to follow-on investors.

Which sectors are you bullish on?

We’re doubling down on consumer platforms and brands, enterprise SaaS with a focus on AI, and fintech — both consumer-facing products and financial infrastructure. Each of these are deep markets, where scalable companies can be built, either serving India or using India as a base to go global. AI in SaaS, in particular, is at an inflection point, and we see founders building products for the world from India, but we also keep significant reserves for follow-on rounds.

What is your investment horizon?

We take a long-term view — typically seven to ten years. Building enduring companies takes time. Several of our portfolio companies like Licious, Nium, and Kissht took close to a decade to reach their inflection points, whether that’s IPO- readiness or attracting PE-led growth capital.

Can you share examples of exits made by you?

Yes, we’ve had exits across IPOs, M&A and secondary sales. Grab went public; FirstCry and XpressBees saw us exit through secondary sales to PE funds. On the M&A side, SpaceMob was acquired by WeWork, CloudCherry by Cisco, Glowroad by Amazon, Recko by Stripe, Flutura by Accenture, and Active.ai by Gupshup. Our approach isn’t rigid —many of our companies are bought rather than sold, reflecting strong demand for quality businesses. Ultimately, we’re focused on creating long-term value, not just near-term liquidity.

What’s next for Vertex Ventures in India?

India is central to our thesis. With Fund V, we’ll continue backing mission-driven founders who can build enduring businesses. Our plan is to make about 12 new investments a year, across sectors, while supporting our existing portfolio with capital and strategic inputs. The opportunity here is massive, and we want to be the partner of choice for early-stage founders building from India for the world.

Kanika Mayar, Partner at Vertex Ventures South-east Asia and India

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