TV Mohandas Pai, a prolific angel investor and an outspoken commentator on civic issues, is occupied nowadays with creating an investment empire straddling an assortment of asset classes.

Ultimately, Pai, who in his post-Infosys avatar has focused mostly on early-stage investments in technology startups, wants to build what he says will be an “ecosystem” of funds with arms concentrated on private equity, real estate, late-stage capital, early-stage high returns funds and promoting women entrepreneurs.

This month, his latest fund, a Rs 250-crore real estate fund called Neev Asset Advisors, will write its first cheque, the terms of which are undisclosed. Work is underway on a dollar fund.

So far, Pai, who began his investing career in 2012, has channelled thousands of crores of rupees into 145 startups, including Byju’s and Zoomcar, through 10 funds. Pai is steadily emerging as a major source of much-needed domestic capital in a startup industry heavily dependent on foreign money.

“In three-five years, we should be very large across many asset classes,” Pai said during an interview last week. “We are creating an ecosystem.” Each fund in this ecosystem — he didn’t say how many funds it would have eventually — has its own investment managers, its own advisors and investment committees, Pai said.

“They compete with each other. Some of them co-invest. And nobody has an influence on their investment philosophy,” he said, adding that he expects his network will be able to absorb a billion dollars in capital in the next couple of years. Aarin Capital, which Pai started along with the CEO of Manipal Education and Medical Group Ranjan Pai, is the anchor investor in all the funds. Ranjan Pai is also a material and significant partner in the funds. “We have 10 funds, 145 (portfolio) companies, and $325 million invested, going up to $625 million in two years,” said Pai.

Source: Economic Times