India’s Cornerstone Ventures hits first close of second fund at around $40m

Indian SaaS-focused venture capital firm Cornerstone Ventures on Wednesday said it has hit the first close of its $200-million second investment vehicle at around $40 million.

The vehicle, launched in April last year, raised capital from domestic investors, including HNIs, family offices, corporates, and other institutions.

Founded by former Reliance executives Rajiv Vaishnav and Abhishek Prasad, Cornerstone expects to make the final close of the fund by December 2025.

Cornerstone raised $50 million for its first fund in 2019 and has clocked 21 investments from the vehicle. It typically invests $1-5 million in enterprise SaaS companies.

In an interview with DealStreetAsia in August, Cornerstone said that it had so far logged two exits from companies and by the end of December, the firm aimed to close two more exits and return 30% to 40% of the capital from the first fund.

On Wednesday, the firm disclosed that its portfolio firm IntelligenceNode was acquired by IPG in December 2024, while a second acquisition is in the final stages, to be announced by March 2025.

Cornerstone also named Suresh Pareek as its General Partner. Pareek is the founder of Sukvi Ventures and co-founder of Elephant Canvas LLP—a digital fine art NFT marketplace operating under the brand NewartX.

In terms of limited partners (LPs), Cornerstone’s first fund was anchored by the Government of India’s Department for Promotion of Industry, Internal Trade Fund of Funds (managed by SIDBI), and Self-Reliant India Fund managed by the State Bank of India.

For the second fund, the firm is looking to tap large domestic institutions and its existing HNI family office pool.

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