Beams Fintech Fund, a leading Growth Stage Fund in the Fintech sector, ended the year 2022 with a bang, as its portfolio companies raised over $150 million, resulting in a combined valuation of over $1 billion.
Beams Fintech Fund, founded by Fintech veterans Sagar Agarvwal and Navin Surya, as well as the founders of Venture Catalysts – Anuj Golecha, Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jain, and Gaurav Jain, completed its first close in March 2022, with a corpus of $36 million. The fund has now invested in two companies and is in the advanced stages of investing in three more.
With a focus on Series B and C rounds of companies operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Beams has built a team of eight investment professionals and over ten mentors, advisors, and CXOs to support its portfolio. The fund has also partnered with financial institutions like Yes Bank, Infibeams, Capri Global, and ECG as limited partners, providing valuable cross-pollination opportunities for its portfolio companies.
Despite a challenging year for many Fintech companies, both of Beams’ portfolio companies saw new investments from prestigious investors. Niyo was backed by Multiples Private Equity, while Beams invested in Progcap alongside Google and Tiger.
Beams is recognized by the founder community for its strategy of identifying gaps in portfolio companies and providing the necessary resources in partnership with its limited partners. With plans to build the largest ecosystem of banks, NBFCs, insurance companies, and DFIs within India and beyond, Beams is following in the footsteps of Canapi Ventures in the US.
In 2022, Beams’ portfolio companies had a significant impact, providing financial services to over five million consumers, SMEs, and MSMEs, financing over $1 billion in loans and enabling annualized payments of over $1.5 billion for underserved and blue-collar workers.
During the year, Beams was recognized as one of the most promising upcoming investors in the Indian Fintech space, leading to invitations to participate in numerous global and pan-India events, including the Global Fintech Fest 2022, India’s largest Fintech event, and the Global LP/GP Event, Superreturns in Amsterdam, Singapore, and Dubai. Managing Partner Sagar Agarwal was also invited to share his insights on Growth Stage Fintech Investments in India.
“2022 has been an eventful year at Beams. As a relatively new platform in the ecosystem and creating a category focussed fund can be interesting at times, especially in a year that was marked by high inflation, geopolitical tensions and cool-off of the tech ecosystem. However, we have been very fortunate to have such high-quality investors support us. We have achieved more than what we had set out to at the start of the year and are proud to be regarded as India’s first Growth Stage focussed Fintech Fund” said Sagar Agarvwal, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Beam Fintech Fund
“CY ’23 looks even more promising & positive for us as markets have corrected significantly both in the private and the public space given us an opportunity to invest with high quality teams and businesses at more attractive prices and our existing portfolio companies are already performing phenomenally well. We expect to close the fund out at a target raise & deploy more than $60-70 mn in CY ’23. We follow a thesis driven approach towards investments & have narrowed down on the following themes for CY ‘23: Embedded Finance/Managed Marketplaces, SAAS Platforms for Banks/FIs, SAAS Platforms for Enterprises, Global Enterprises SAAS, Open Banking & Digital Financial Inclusion” said Navin Surya, Co-founder & Operating Partner, Beam Fintech Fund.
