It’s all surreal now, but it wasn’t for a really long time, and the investment world is dark and deep more investor miles to go………………. before we launch the next one! (feeling “frost”y!)
When Ganesh (Partner at a99) and me had our usual 30 sec conversation in Late 2021 it went something like this
Me: “ Dai im quitting Stanley Black & Decker”
Him: “ Seri OK Welcome Back!” (No unnecessary emotions!)
Me: “ We should launch our next SEBI Registered fund”
Him: “Seri OK”
Me: “Evlo (How much) launch Pannalam?”
Him: “ 10 Crores (USD 1.5M)? (our earlier prop fund was closer to USD 0.5M)”
Me: “ Why dont we do 100 Crs? (Approx USD 15M)”
Him: “ Hmmm Seri Ok! Namakku 100 Crores Kuduppangala? (Will we raise 100 or will LPs give us 100 Crs.?) Seri paathukkalam (Ok lets see)”
This 30-45 sec conversation was the entire base for our first large fund we started ideation for – Circa Jan 1st 2022, SEBI Approval (May 19th 2022 – 1 day before I turned 40!) – Official Launch June 1st 2022!
We were 10% committed on day 1 (verbal!) for people who think verbal commitment is closer to 100% actual commitment – Welcome to fools paradise!
At the outset we launched June 2022 we closed 100 Crs June 2024 some further commitments to take it to 5% more than our original fund size. It may appear like a national highway route from Chennai to Bangalore [but] it was not smooth sailing always. We had some emotional highs, hilarious lows, put downs, let downs, signed commitments taken back, unexpected confirmations etc., a typical potboiler.
Some hilarity at work has always accompanied Ganesh and me, for ex: we had an investor from UK who signed the investment documents and pulled out at the last minute because our bankers and us shared the same building address!!(we were on tier 1 and they were tier 0) 🤣 He was suspicious because his bank portal in London told him the transaction looks suspicious! . He has gone incognito since and we are still tracking him to negate the agreement. One more investor committed to invest INR 5 crores but we had to liquidate his real estate holdings in Chennai and take the money! We never managed to sell the house! (we will never do a real estate fund!)
We have had well established family offices run by reputed wealth managers who told us our strategy will not fly as we are looking to focus more on manufacturing and not on tech! (contrarian investing doesn’t work for them!). Before we started our fund raise we drew up a list of people who will surely invest with us, surprise surprise 90% of the list didn’t invest with us! We went to places where we never thought we will go to for fund raise – Siliguri, Coimbatore, New Jersey, Dubai, Singapore, San Ramon, Muscat, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi! just to name a few, we raised the least from the so called VC hubs (Mumbai Bangalore!) guess we were too new/naive for these hotbeds!
The people who said to us we are thank fun and aspire / perspire to max out the returns from our fund. To the people who told us no we are even more thankful as all the nays made our resolve stronger. My buddies from School were our first backers – thanks for the faith as always! Kumar Uncle – Thanks as always! the rest of our institutional backers and HNI backers we come to work day in and day out to max out your returns.
Our Strategy has been carved/molded through this fund raise period, going from wannabe’s (SAAS, E-Com, BlockChain, Fintech ) to more resolute and steady “hard asset investments” we have come a long way. We hope to do a larger fund post this nailing our strategy out further.
Our invested companies, not only we have our careers riding on you but also our aspirations to max out returns for our investors. We at a99 are always around with our broad shoulders for any heavy lifting/crying/resting etc!
Though the journey has been fulfilling today it has had its share of deep downs, including some of the core team members leaving or wanting to leave, conditional hires (who join with a laundry list of conditions) nasty talk from larger funds literally pooh poohing us for the fact that we launched a fund. We did struggle a lot to move the needle. All said and done the needle moved! Now to complete the investment journey for this special fund that made us VC’s.
Et Bhavam Tat Bhavati!
