Promoters of Playbook Partners, an India-based growth capital fund, are close to striking deals with some of the Middle East-based leading institutional investors such as sovereign funds and large family offices for investments in their $250 million fund, the fund’s top manager indicated.
The initial target of $250 million corpus for the fund could go up several notches if the institutional investors from the region agree to write bigger cheques.
The fund promoters will be holding ‘select’ investor meets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh among leading cities in the region in the coming days for holding late-stage discussions to finalise the deals.
Playbook is also looking to invest part of the fund in the region’s health tech, climate tech and SaaS (software-as-a-service) ventures which have either an India presence or scope for global expansion.
India-based growth stage startup ventures which already have a Middle East connection or planning to expand into the region will be among the other target companies for investments by Playbook.
“We are currently in active discussions with some of the leading institutional investors in the Middle East, mainly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for investments in our fund,” Vikas Choudhury, Founder and top executive of Playbook Partners, told Arabian Business.
“We are hopeful of finalising investment deals with some of them soon,” he said.
Playbook has already crossed $130 million in the first close within four months of the launch, and is currently in the market to exercise the $120 million green-shoe option.
Though the Playbook’s top executive declined to comment on the fund exceeding the $250 million mark, indications are that the final corpus could be significantly higher than the target.
Besides Middle East investors, Playbook promoters are also talking to established global investors from Europe and the US for seeking investments in the fund.
Middle East a major focus market for Playbook Partners
Playbook is among a growing number of Indian funds which are of late focusing more on the Middle East for raising capital rather than the traditional favourite hotspots such as London, New York and Singapore.
“The Middle East, especially countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, will be a major focus market for us for both raising capital and investments,” said Choudhury, a Harvard Business School alumnus, who has a commendable investment track record, including in 10 unicorns and some of the sought after IPOs, besides some multi-bagger exits from startups such as Myntra, PolicyBazaar, InMobi, Fractal and Nazara.
He also said they will be looking to have a Middle East presence with opening an office likely in Dubai.
Playbook Partners may also explore possibilities for launching a Middle East fund sometime in future, after the fund made greater inroads into the region in terms of having several investment partners and investee ventures.
“We haven’t decided on the timeframe for opening our office in the region, but, yes, that’s under serious consideration,” Choudhury said.
Regarding the region-specific fund, the Playbook Partners top executive said: “That could be a possibility in the future, but nothing on it on the board currently.”
He said the fund’s main focus will be late-stage startup ventures in the new-age tech sectors, especially in the digital space.
“We will be mainly investing in ventures operating in the digital transformation or disruption.
They could be either in the front-end, leading the distribution reach across geographies, or in the middle marketplace or at the back-end like operating supply chain and logistics segments,” Choudhury said.
Health tech, climate tech, fintech ventures in UAE, Saudi Arabia on the radar
Choudhury said there are several promising startup ventures in the Middle East, especially in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, operating in the health tech, climate tech and fintech segments which could be potential investment targets for the fund.
“We could spot some of the potential winners in these segments and help them to scale-up for global or regional expansion, including into India,” Choudhury said.
He said unlike other VCs (venture capitals), Playbook Partners is an operator-driven fund, with its senior leadership team having unparalleled experience in building and scaling some of the largest businesses like McKinsey, Reliance Jio and Asian Paints.
Choudhury said their playbook isn’t just to fund, but to forge – capital, relationships, and strategic insight – necessary for visionary companies to master the art of scale and institutionalise their leadership position.
“Playbook will partner with tech-enabled businesses targeting large market opportunities that have demonstrated positive unit economics, digital scalability, and sustainable growth,” he said, adding that the fund’s global investors’ trust and momentum is an endorsement of the differentiated strategy and its alignment with the market opportunity.
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