Faering Capital: India's home-grown growth-equity house

The firm

Faering Capital is one of India's home-grown private equity success stories: a Mumbai-based growth-equity firm with a 14-year track record, $720 million in assets under management and 33 investments to its name. Founded in 2009 by Aditya Parekh and Sameer Shroff — friends who first met in New York in 1999 — the firm was built on three principles it states plainly on its site: trust, knowledge and partnership. Its name comes from a Nordic boat, symbolising the mission to explore investment opportunities across an evolving India. The firm's disciplined, sector-focused approach has made it a fixture in Indian mid-market growth investing, and it is actively seeking new investments.

Thesis and sweet spot

Faering Capital is a growth-capital investor, not a venture fund: it backs companies at the expansion stage, writing cheques reported in the $10–50 million range. Its hunting ground is India-only mid-market, across financial services, consumer and retail, healthcare and business services — sectors where it develops proprietary investment themes rather than chasing deal flow. The fund series tells the story of its ascent: Faering Capital India Evolving Fund, a Rs. 800 crore (~$150 million) first fund raised in 2010 from Indian institutions and family offices; Faering Capital India Evolving Fund II, a Rs. 1,300 crore (~$200 million) second fund that held its first close in 2016; and a third fund of $350 million raised in 2022 from Indian and international institutional investors and family offices. The first fund's very first investment — RBL Bank in 2011 — returned 4x in five years.

Notable portfolio

The portfolio reads like a tour of India's consumer and financial-services economy. In financial services: RBL Bank, Vastu Housing Finance (Faering invested $30 million, its third investment from Fund 3), Vistaar Financial Services (a secured MSME finance NBFC), smallcase (the capital-markets fintech), Go Digit General Insurance and Niva Bupa Health Insurance. In consumer: Nykaa, India's largest beauty and lifestyle platform; Plum (Pureplay Skin Sciences), the clean-beauty D2C brand; Bakingo, the national bakery brand and gifting platform; and Hangyo, a leading South Indian ice cream brand. In healthcare: PB Health, a technology-driven integrated healthcare platform, and Anthem Biosciences, among India's top-five pharma contract development and manufacturing companies.

People

The firm was founded and is led by Aditya Parekh and Sameer Shroff, who have worked together for over two decades. Their model is partnership-heavy: Faering positions itself as a growth partner that works alongside founders through the expansion phase rather than a passive capital provider.

Programs, credits and perks

Faering Capital does not run a public accelerator, fellowship or startup credits programme — it invests growth capital into established mid-market companies, and engagement is direct rather than application-based. For earlier-stage founders, the practical door is different: Faering's portfolio companies — fast-growing brands like Bakingo, fintechs like smallcase, lenders like Vastu — are constant buyers of technology, distribution and services, which makes them fertile ground for B2B partnerships, vendor relationships and pilot customers.