Media entrepreneurs team up for $100-million investment Co DVM Capital

The three managing partners are in talks with family offices and high net worth individuals (HNIs) to build the $100 million corpus, and are already evaluating multiple deals with ticket sizes ranging from $1 million to $10 million.

“We are excited about helping entrepreneurs refine their narratives in the fast-growing eyeball economy. Consumers are buying what they see and we want to be in all those businesses,” said Bhatt, managing partner, DVM Capital.

The Mumbai-based fund plans to expand into Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the US in the next 24 months.

“We are evaluating multiple deals worth $30-40 million, which should be finalised within the next 12-18 months,” added Mehra.

DVM capital will identify, mentor and invest in capital-efficient companies and work closely with founders in the early stages of the development of their businesses.

“We will typically invest in early stage and Series A,” Bhatt added. “We will look for active long term investments in high quality asset owned companies with a strategic interest and input. We are targeting annualised returns of over 20% over the five-year period.”

DVM Capital will be deploying experience of the core management team and advisors across geographies. The management team will collaborate with fellow VCs and investment bankers to identify suitable growth strategies and exit opportunities.

The start-up ecosystem has seen a lot of action in the last couple of years, with India producing over 30 unicorns. However, most of the funds have been deployed across tech companies, including consumer tech, ed tech, fintech and online gaming.

ET reported last month that Sony Corp is setting up an India-focused venture capital arm that will act as a co-investor in startups alongside celebrities such as film stars and sports personalities and look to participate in the funding boom that has given rise to several unicorns.

One of the most successful funds in the media and tech space has been KKR-backed Emerald Media, which has recently made successful exits from Amagi and Cosmos Maya.