Sorin Investments: Rs 1,350 crore of Series A firepower from KKR India's former chief

When Sanjay Nayar, the former head of KKR India, decided to start his own fund, the Indian early-stage market paid attention. The result is Sorin Investments, a venture firm that closed its maiden fund at Rs 1,350 crore in May 2024 — one of the more decisive debut fundraises by an India-focused early-stage manager.

Sorin Investments is an early-stage tech fund focused squarely on Series A and B. Its mandate spans tech and tech-enabled businesses across sectors, with six core sectors at its heart: fintech, health tech, D2C, consumer tech, B2B tech and AI/SaaS. The firm's stated goal is to partner with fearless founders trying to solve real-world problems.

The LP roster reads like a who-is-who of institutional conviction. Limited partners in the maiden fund include the Nayar family office, the Banga family office, the Munjal family office of the Hero Group, the family office of Henry Kravis (KKR's co-founder) alongside other senior KKR partners, plus SIDBI, Self Reliant India (SBICAP Ventures' SRI fund), and an investment from the Uttar Pradesh startup fund. That mix of family offices, global investment royalty and public institutions gave the firm a strong capital base from day one.

The leadership team combines heavyweight deal-making experience with operating pedigree. Sanjay Nayar serves as founder and chairman, and Angad Banga as general partner and co-founder. They are joined by partners Mandar Dandekar (formerly of Kalaari Capital) and Subeer Monga (formerly of ICICI Ventures and Mayfield India), with a wider team of principals, vice presidents and associates, plus an advisory bench that includes Rajesh Magow, Mittu Sridhara and Vibhav Dhawan.

The investment approach goes beyond cheque-writing. Sorin Investments says it plans to participate actively in key decision-making of its portfolio companies, channelling the team's ringside experience of building some of India's most prominent technology companies into helping founders build successful, enduring businesses. The firm's homepage sums it up plainly: 'We exist to help founders build, scale, and win.'

The portfolio already reflects the cross-sector thesis. Early investments include Uniqus Consultech in tech-enabled consulting, Venwiz in industrial services, and Litestore in retail, with later additions spanning Freed in fintech, Nivaan Care in healthtech, HomeRun and The Pant Project in commerce, and aanswr in e-commerce.

For founders approaching Series A, Sorin Investments offers something relatively rare in the Indian market: a firm purpose-built for that exact stage, run by people who have sat on the other side of large buyouts and seen what scaling companies really demands. The firm looks for founders who are early to emerging ideas, business models or technologies and want to leverage technology to bring transformative change to their sector.