IndiaCo Ventures (IVL), one of the leading financial advisory and investment firms would raise USD 500 million through its India Growth Opportunity Fund (IGOF) with an India-centric investment mandate.

``We aim to raise the fund in the next three-four month period from the global investor community and invest in the small and medium-sized companies in India over the next four years. The objective of IGOF is to provide superior returns to our investors through our knowledge capital and experience in restructuring and growing business``, said Rahul Patwardhan, vice-chairman and managing director, IndiaCo Ventures.

The (Q,N,C,F)* fund will make investments into both private and public listed companies where IndiaCo Ventures can add maximum value in terms of strategy, technology, finance and growth with the aim of enabling Indian companies to go global through technology, geography, markets and products.

He said the company targets to invest in growing sectors such as clean-tech, telecom services, defense and aerospace, precision manufacturing, healthcare and IT solutions in the range of USD 10-50 million a company with the 3-5 year investment tenure.
``The investment cap would not be more than 10 per cent of the fund in a single company``, he added.

Further, IndiaCo Ventures would target equity and quasi-equity investment instruments with shareholding pattern of minority; majority or 100% stake and go for active participation in creating significant value creation at all levels.

The company has extensive experience in guiding and managing businesses and scaling up operations, often with embedded intellectual property, with both organic and inorganic growth dynamics.

``The company optimizes the capital structure to create maximum impact on the bottom-line and reduces risk through low entry valuations by mitigating key exposures and through better governance``, said Dhananjay Bnedre, executive director & chief operating officer, IVL.

Shares of the company gained Re 1, or 1.85%, to settle at Rs 55. The total volume of shares traded was 1,430 at the BSE (Tuesday).