Meenakshi Group Sets $10M ‘Meenakshi Multiples’ Startup Fund, Announces First Investment in Hyderabad’s Co-working Venture ‘iKeva’

Hyderabad headquartered Meenakshi Group, one of India’s leading IT Park developers, having interests in real estate, power, highway, EPC projects and property management, today announced the creation of $10 million Startup fund called ‘Meenakshi Multiples’ to invest in promising startups.
Announcing the launch of the fund Mahesh Katragadda, Director of Meenakshi Group stated: “Over the next three years, our target is to invest around $10 million through our new startup Fund. We’re going to look at startups solving very specific problems, with potential to scale in the future.”
‘Meenakshi Multiples’ announced its first investment; by picking up a 6% equity in Hyderabad based co-working venture ‘iKeva’ for an undisclosed sum.
Revealing the first investment Mahesh said “Co-working space is interesting. It’s probably got a lot of attention recently, but what we like to seek out is the startup abilities such as iKeva to create the real value, and solve real specific wants or problems for customers.”
“We chose to invest in iKeva because of their ethos on building a sustainable business model, with the single focus on Customers and Service Delivery, which they have demonstrated consistently and have systems in place to ensure continuity.” Mahesh added.
To tap business opportunities, Meenakshi Multiples has in place a dedicated investment team comprising finance and legal professionals along with analysts. The group has already made investments in a few startups.
“The investment team will take up due diligence of startups including scaled-up businesses. Proptech and Co-Working hold a lot of promise, and is worth exploring among the scaled-up new-age businesses,” Mahesh stated.
The size of investments made in specific companies is not revealed, however, it is learned that Meenakshi Multiples’ is open to make investments of any sizes within their overall fund target.
The 25-year-old Group celebrated its silver jubilee last year and has a steady year-on-year growth in revenues. Till date, Meenakshi Group has developed over 12 million square foot of commercial and residential space. The power projects owned by the group has produced 11,500 million units of electricity and holds a portfolio of 400 MW Hydro projects in various stages of execution. The highway division of the group completed 200 Kilometres of road and highway projects up till now.
The group’s rationale to set up the fund is to encourage new-age businesses, processes, and technology ventures, and providing new strategic capabilities.