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Japan-based Suzuki Motor’s Next Bharat Ventures has launched its second impact investment fund with a corpus of ₹2,000 Cr for Indian startups.

The fund will focus on early and growth stage startups and will have an average ticket size of $500K to $1 Mn (about ₹4.8 Cr to ₹9.6 Cr), significantly higher than the ₹1 Cr to ₹5 Cr it disbursed from the first fund.

The new fund is expected to start making investments in the next month, with a target to make 10-12 deals per year over the next four years. Notably, half of the fund’s corpus will be allocated to a fund-of-funds strategy, investing as a limited partner in high-performing VC firms, allowing the fund to hedge the risks associated with its impact investments.

The first fund of Next Bharat Ventures invested capital as an LP in funds of VC firms like 3one4 Capital, Sparrow Capital, Northpoint, among others.

Notably, Next Bharat Ventures is wholly owned and anchored by Suzuki.

The second fund will back ventures in sectors ranging from from rural-focused healthcare, rural mobility, financial services and productivity to agritech, cleantech and retail tech startups, founder and CEO Vipul Jindal Nath told Inc42. This would also include backing micro-entrepreneurs, impact-focused AI startups and livelihood-creation offerings.

“The idea is to find entrepreneurs who are truly passionate about creating quality of life in India’s
rural informal economy because that’s where the next leg of the country’s growth will come from. It’s also one of the most overlooked segments,” Nath said.

Next Bharat Ventures will look to invest in startups that have an established product-market fit and are revenue generating. Nath said that the fund has a 15-year life, and he expects exits to come through SME IPOs once startups have established a strong revenue base. It will also make follow-on investments in existing portfolio startups through both funds.

Next Bharat Ventures launched its first fund in 2024 with a corpus of ₹340 Cr. It has made 20 investments from the fund so far, including in E-bik, MeMeraki, Atypical Advantage, among others.

Nath added that 80% of the startups from the firm’s first fund are already EBITDA positive, with many of them piloting their offerings in Japan through the fund’s mentorship programmes. It also runs a residency programme in Bengaluru for startups that are not yet ready for capital but have a promising business idea.

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