Mumbai, Aug. 19 — After recent bets on La Renon and Trimex Foods, US-based Siguler Guff is looking to deepen its presence in India through its latest $500 million fund, targeting mid-market, founder- and family-owned businesses where it sees significant funding opportunities, partner Shaun Khubchandani told Mint in an interview.
The $500 million corpus marks the close of its second Global Emerging Markets Growth Opportunities Fund (GEMGO II), as the investment fund looks to double down on durable themes in India.
The fund, which includes related co-investment vehicles and various separately managed accounts, has substantially stepped up its India commitments. The closure represents more than double the $238 million that the multi-strategy markets investment firm deployed in India through its predecessor global emerging markets vintage.
The previous fund, which had a similar investment thesis, was a global emerging markets fund with about half the capital that went towards India, Khubchandani said, adding that an additional $120 million was invested through co-investments across five companies.
“India’s mid-market continues to offer an attractive opportunity to partner with founder-led and family-owned businesses at a pivotal stage of growth. Our approach combines growth capital with strategic and operational support to help management teams strengthen governance, build institutional capabilities and scale their businesses over the long term,” said New York-based Khubchandani, who is also co-portfolio manager of GEMGO II.
He said mid-stage investing is a tougher part of the market, as companies are generally less institutional in shape with a majority of the private companies still founder- or family-owned.
“Our focus lies in professionalizing these companies by help with hiring CFOs and C-level management teams, putting ERPs in place and getting governance standards in order,” Khubchandani said.
The new fund has invested about $200 million through recent investments in food service operator Trimex Foods, Indian Premier League cricket team Rajasthan Royals, artificial intelligence (AI)-native consulting firm Valliance.ai and domestic formulations player La Renon, reflecting its focus on partnering with founder- and promoter-owned businesses that serve both India’s domestic economy and the global markets.
“India is a highly compelling long-term global investment opportunity, supported by powerful demographic trends, rising consumption, and a dynamic business environment. We believe the mid-market, where we have long specialized, offers an opportunity to partner with exceptional businesses,” said Drew Guff, chief investment officer of Siguler Guff and co-portfolio manager of GEMGO II.
It will continue to invest in high-growth, founder, and family-owned businesses with average investment sizes of about $50 million, focusing on companies that can benefit from India’s domestic consumption growth and those serving global demand across consumer, healthcare, financial services, and technology. It will also offer co-investment opportunities to its investors.
“While $50 million is our sweet spot, we also have the ability to do larger deals of up to $75-100 million through co-investments,” Khubchandani said.
Within consumer, the firm targets sub-sectors such as value-retail, sports and food.
“If you also look at the quick commerce segment, it has changed the unit economics for many online Indian businesses. Our new fund will focus on such companies that leverage the unit economics that comes from quick commerce,” Khubchandani said.
As quick commerce changes the way the online buyer shops, there are a number of businesses that couldn’t handle the last mile effectively and are now seeing more viable economics. “So, I think direct to consumer will be a bigger part of our portfolio as they use these channels to expand further into tier-2, -3 areas,” he added.
Within pharma and healthcare, the firm is evaluating opportunities in hospitals although valuations have not always been favourable. “We might look to do a rollup of either a single or multi-speciality platform, where we buy one asset and then bolt on through other acquisitions. This gives us the benefit of getting better multiples through scale,” Khubchandani said.
Thematically, Siguler will focus on opportunities that have an India for India proposition in sectors such as consumer healthcare and financial services. “We are also building an India-for-the-world thesis for this fund, where we expect to see more businesses that are focused on advanced or innovation-led manufacturing that starts in India but has an export-led thesis to other global markets,” he said.
To date, Siguler Guff has invested about $1 billion in India across its various emerging markets vehicles, which include investments in 23 companies such as Indian Energy Exchange, GlobalLogic, City Union Bank, Luker Electric Technologies, Baazar Kolkata, and Sterling Hospitals.
The firm has grown its India team to seven members, with plans to add five more investment professionals.
Siguler Guff has clocked about nine exits so far through a mix of block deals, initial public offerings (IPOs) and secondary sale to strategics or private investors, and it has a few more planned over the coming months.
Earlier this month, Mint reported that Siguler Guff, alongside other early investors, are exploring a process to exit their eight-year-old stake in Baazar Kolkata at a valuation of Rs.5,000 crore.
And in May, the Mittal family had bought a majority stake in Rajasthan Royals in a transaction valued at $1.65 billion, facilitating exits for some of the earlier investors including Siguler. The deal is pending regulatory nod from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and other bodies.
Sigular’s fund is supported by new and existing investors globally, spanning pension plans, family offices, financial institutions, foundations, and ultra-high net worth individuals. Some of its investors include German investment and development company DEG and the World’s Bank’s International Finance Corp (IFC), alongside pension funds in the US and Australia and family offices in West Asia and Europe.
“While DEG has been an investor across both our funds, this is IFC’s first commitment to the Siguler’s India-focused fund. Both these investors will also be co-investors for some of our investments,” Khubchandani said.
Siguler Guff had a total of about $18.4 billion of assets under management (AUM) as of end December 2025.
With 30 years of experience in private market investments, the firm now seeks to focus on market niches worldwide. It operates strategies spanning small business buyout, emerging markets, opportunistic credit, real estate and small business credit. Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from MINT. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htdigital.in