Whiteboard Capital Closes INR 300 Cr Fund-II, Eyes 50 New Investments The firm plans to deploy capital across approximately 50 companies, with a strong emphasis on follow-on investments within its existing portfolio.

Whiteboard Capital, a venture capital fund recognized for its early-stage investments in fintech and consumer brands, has successfully closed its second fund at INR 300 crore, doubling its initial target of INR 150 crore. The newly closed Fund-II has already commenced its investment activities, backed by a diverse group of limited partners (LPs), including several family offices and domestic institutions.

The firm plans to deploy capital across approximately 50 companies, with a strong emphasis on follow-on investments within its existing portfolio. Whiteboard Capital, which boasts investments in notable fintechs like Cred, Jupiter, and Dezerv, as well as consumer brands such as Damensch and NatHabit, has already provided a 1x return to its investors.

Anshu Prasher, Partner at Whiteboard Capital, said, "In Fund II, 30–35% of deployable capital will go towards new cheques and roughly a double of that is reserved for follow-on into (existing) companies… In Fund 1, one of the things that I think we could have done better is that we could have written more follow-on cheques in portfolio companies. But because of not having enough capital, we could not do that. So, we had to be more judicious with follow-on investing."

Founded by Sandeep Tandon, co-founder of the mobile recharge platform Freecharge, and Cred founder Kunal Shah, Whiteboard Capital embodies a philosophy of backing founders before their business plans are fully developed, helping refine their products and strategies. This early-stage approach allows Whiteboard to invest at lower enterprise valuations, often when startups are less than two months old or not yet incorporated.

Currently, 40% of Whiteboard Capital's investments are in the consumer sector, with 30–35% allocated to financial services companies. For Fund II, the firm categorises its portfolio into core and non-core companies, with core companies being those where it holds more than a 7.5% ownership stake and has invested over USD 200,000.

Prasher expressed optimism about the future, stating, "We will see more USD 400-750 million exits in India and potentially a few USD 3-5 billion exits, which is the reason why we consciously stayed on with this strategy of coming in extremely early, taking that bet or chance on the founders." He also discussed the influx of tech venture capitalists into the consumer space, noting that it creates a tailwind for portfolio companies, helping them attract better attention and follow-on investment as they approach product-market fit.