Asiana Fund, the investment platform of Dani family office, has partnered with Taiwan-based JC Capital to launch a ₹1,000-crore fund focused on backing India’s next generation of advanced manufacturing companies, as the country seeks to move beyond assembly and build globally competitive products and intellectual property.
The Asiana-JCC Advanced Manufacturing & Innovation Fund comprises a ₹600-crore corpus and a ₹400-crore greenshoe option and will target 12-15 growth-stage companies across advanced manufacturing, robotics, semiconductors, computing, materials, aerospace and defence.
Speaking exclusively to businessline, Jalaj Dani, Founder and Sponser, Asiana Fund said that the fund plans to make initial investments of ₹30-50 crore in companies and reserve capital for follow-on rounds. Rather than funding companies at the research-and-development stage, the fund will focus on early-growth businesses with a clear path to commercialisation, he added.
Connecting Indian start-ups
The investment thesis goes beyond providing capital. The fund will seek to connect Indian start-ups with Taiwan’s established supplier, manufacturer and technology ecosystem, including access to component sourcing, technology partnerships and potential joint ventures. JC Capital’s Founder and Managing Partner, Jim Che, said 80 per cent of its limited partners are corporates, providing potential links to Taiwanese companies and industrial networks.
The fund comes as government support for manufacturing, India’s growing engineering and technology talent and increasing global interest in building supply-chain alternatives has gathered momentum.
“Capital shouldn’t be a constraint,” Dani said, highlighting the need for Indian companies to build and protect IP, achieve product-market fit and compete globally on both technology and cost.
The fund has an eight-year life with a two-year extension and expects exits through strategic buyouts, secondary transactions and other routes as India’s venture-capital ecosystem matures.
Asiana has deployed more than $75 million across 11 investments since 2017 and has previously invested in areas including robotics, drone technology, clean technology and medtech.