Expect Strong Returns From India Investments: Vertex Ventures’ Kanika Mayar

*This article is adapted from * vccircle

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, a Temasek-backed venture capital firm, has been active in the region since about 2010. The firm invests across consumer tech, fintech, enterprise software, healthtech, and sustainability sectors. In September 2023, it closed its $541 million (Rs 4,799 crore) Fund V, surpassing its $450 million target. In an interaction with VCCircle, Kanika Mayar, partner at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, discusses the firm’s India portfolio, sector bets, key learnings from past funds, and why current valuations look healthier.

Edited excerpts: How has Vertex’s India portfolio performed, and which companies stand out?

Our Southeast Asia and India funds have consistently exceeded top-quartile benchmarks. In India, we have backed over 50 companies across consumer, enterprise software, fintech, health, sustainability, and mobility.

Several have become category leaders, such as Licious, Kissht, KukuFM, Pilgrim, Kapiva, and FirstCry (now exited). We expect strong returns from our India investments.

You have been quite active in India in the past few months. Which sectors are you actively investing in?

We are especially excited about consumer platforms and brands, enterprise SaaS with an AI focus, and fintech–both consumer-facing and financial infrastructure. We are also seeing opportunities in digital health, sustainability, and mobility. These are deep markets where businesses can be scaled for India, as well as globally.

What lessons from earlier funds are shaping your current strategy?

It takes patience, unwavering customer focus, and excellence in execution to build a high-quality company that can scale and sustain itself. The rest is hype, which as investors, we try to ignore. We’ve also seen that staying disciplined on entry valuations and taking a long-term view have helped us generate strong outcomes, while being true partners to founders.

Beyond capital, how are you supporting founders in today’s tighter funding climate?

We work closely with founders on business development, talent recruitment, and connections with follow-on investors. In the current environment, we're also helping sharpen go-to-market strategies, hiring, and annual planning so companies have enough runway to build sustainable models with clear paths to profitability.

What is your outlook on valuations in India over the next two years?

Valuations have already rationalized and are now healthy across public and private markets. We see it as a healthy development. The focus is back on fundamentals, sustainable growth, and strong unit economics. India is currently one of the most attractive venture markets globally. Over the medium term, we expect valuations to hold, especially in sectors where businesses are scaling efficiently.

Are you seeing renewed appetite from strategics and international buyers for Indian assets?

Yes, we are seeing renewed M&A interest from both India as well as international conglomerates. Examples include HUL’s recent acquisition of Minimalist, and from our own portfolio, Stripe acquiring Recko. The deciding factor is that companies should be value accretive to the buyer’s P&L, that is, growing well and generating profits, and/or offering superior technology for the future. This is the combination that leads to strategies paying good value and benefiting from an efficient and agile new-age business model.

How much of Fund V has been deployed?

We are actively deploying from Fund V and have significant capital still available. Our strategy is to make 10-15 new investments annually across India and Southeast Asia, balanced across stages and sectors.

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