ENA Sectors 2025-01-16 16:13:21 <p><span style="font-size:14px"><strong>New Delhi, Jan 16 (KNN)</strong> Cornerstone Ventures, a venture capital firm specialising in SaaS (software as a services) startups, announced the first close of its USD 200 million second fund at USD 40 million. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">The initial closure includes commitments from domestic limited partners, including family offices, high net-worth individuals, and corporate entities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">The venture firm plans to deploy investments ranging from USD 5 million to USD 15 million across 15-20 deals, targeting multiple sectors including financial services and insurance, retail, consumer goods and ecommerce, distribution and supply chain, and healthcare products and services. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">Alongside this announcement, the firm welcomed Suresh Pareek, founder of pharmaceutical company Ideal Cures, as General Partner.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">Cornerstone Ventures emphasised the strong performance of enterprise SaaS companies in recent years, citing examples such as Zoom, Salesforce, Shopify, and Twilio, which have generated over 800 percent in total returns with an annualised IRR exceeding 65 percent over the past five years. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">This performance notably surpasses that of major internet consumer companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google, which delivered approximately 300 percent return during the same period.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">The firm's existing portfolio includes companies such as Credilio, Blubirch, Credit Nirvana, Dopplr, Flinfo, Intelligence Node, and Manage Artworks. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">Looking ahead, Cornerstone Ventures maintains an optimistic outlook on the enterprise SaaS sector, predicting sustained double-digit growth through market expansion and competition with traditional technology companies.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">According to Tracxn data, India's SaaS sector has grown to encompass over 22,000 companies, including 2,760 funded enterprises that have collectively raised USD 25.6 billion in venture capital and private equity. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">The sector has produced 28 unicorns and witnessed 377 acquisitions and 28 IPOs. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px">However, funding in the space has seen a decline, with investments dropping from USD 6.6 billion in 2021 to USD 1.54 billion in 2024, though showing a slight improvement from USD 1.2 billion in 2023.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14px"><em><strong>(KNN Bureau)</strong></em></span><br /> </p> 40674 https://knnindia.co.in/news/newsdetails/sectors/cornerstone-ventures-secures-usd-40-mn-to-support-saas-startups 2025-01-16 16:13:21 knnindia.co.in