With PharmEasy, MobiKwik and ixigo all set to hit the public market, Orios plans to go deeper into pre-IPO bets

• Orios Venture Partners has already invested in IPO-bound MobiKwik and ixigo this year.
• It has also been an early investor in PharmEasy that plans to go public in a year.
• Apart from pre-IPO deals, Orios would be looking to close 12 early-stage deals by March 2022.

Venture capital (VC) firm Orios Venture Partners, which typically invests in early-stage deals, has decided to take a big leap towards pre-initial public offering (IPO) deals to max out its returns.

The firm had also announced the final close of its $30 million Select Fund I in June 2021 to make such bets along with other follow-on and fresh rounds. Orios Venture Partners has closed three funds to date — first in 2015, second in 2018 and third in 2021 totaling to over $230 million.

In the first half of 2021, Orios Venture Partners has placed its bets on companies like Mobikwik and ixigo that have filed preliminary papers for their IPOs in the last one month. So far, it has invested an average amount of $1 million-$3 million in each of these companies.

The investment firm will be looking to close more such pre-IPO deals in the coming years.


Orios will be focusing on 6-7 priority segments when it comes to closing pre-IPO deals. “So, we have always been a sector-agnostic fund and looking at the most lucrative sectors for India over the next five to six years,” Jain told Business Insider.

These sectors would include travel, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), health, logistics, agriculture, gaming and online marketplaces. The larger theme around investments in these segments would be finding companies that are building products for the next billion users, Jain added.

One of Orios’ bets was Nazara Technologies, a gaming giant that hit the public market in March 2021. Besides this, Orios has also been an early investor in online pharmacy startup PharmEasy, which announced the acquisition of publicly listed diagnostic care company Thyrocare in June 2021 to expand its network and find a simpler way to hit the public market in the next one year.

"Seeing the entire momentum [of digital adoption and growth of businesses], the ecosystem of companies progressing towards IPO, and learning from Pharmeasy, which is our own portfolio company from the seed stage, we thought to expand our horizons as a fund to take advantage of this bunch of companies that are highly successful and dominant. [The development would enable Orios] to take advantage of their late stage IPO plans and create value for our shareholders for our investors,” Jain.


Its portfolio has invested in over 70 companies such as agritech company Krishify, gaming company Zupee, retail tech company Gully Network, digital health company Beato, fintech company MoneyOnClick, car servicing platform GoMechanic, dairy products company Country Delight and more.

According to data aggregation platform Crunchbase, Orios has exited from seven companies to date. Jain added that the company is yet to make some of its biggest exits.

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