Playbook Partners, a growth capital firm founded by a former Reliance Jio executive, on Tuesday said it has marked the first close of its maiden fund at $130 million.
The fund, which can grow up to $250 million, including a green shoe option, will invest in growth-stage, tech-enabled businesses in large addressable markets that have meaningful scale, healthy operating margins, and high growth, the firm said in a statement.
For the first close, the firm raised funds from global investors from Europe, the US, the Middle East, and India.
Founded by Vikas Choudhury, who has held leadership roles at multinational public companies including Reliance Jio and Aimia Inc, Playbook Partners’ senior investing team includes Dushyant Singh (ex-McKinsey & Co) and Sumit Jain (ex-Sistema Asia Capital and Kalaari Capital).
“Powered by a 5x growth in the digital economy to over $1 trillion, India will account for over 15% of the entire global economic growth over the next decade. Our purpose is to fuel India’s aspirational growth and transformation at scale,” Choudhury said.
Playbook Partners’s fund launch comes at a time when growth-stage funding seems to be resurging.
According to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia, growth-stage startups led fundraising in August. Companies in the Series B or post-Series B rounds (including private equity and pre-IPO rounds) collected an aggregate of $1.27 billion — about 72% of the total deal value — through 18 investments. In comparison, growth-stage deals collectively garnered a mere $480 million in July.
