Rockstud Capital, an alternative asset management firm, and Artha Venture Fund, an early-stage investor, have made their first exit with a partial stake sale in Everest Fleet. Artha boasted returns worth USD 2 million, while Rockstud stated that it yielded an 18.8x return.
According to Tracxn, Siddharth Ladsariya, the founder and chief executive of Everest Fleet, is the biggest shareholder in the company. Other investors include Uber, Paragon Partners, and InCred Capital, among others.
Commenting on the exit, Abhishek Agarwal, Founder and Managing Partner of Rockstud Capital, said, “This makes Rockstud Capital one of the very select few VC Funds in the country to be able to return the entire capital back to its investors within the 5th year of operations. The Fund has generated 18.8x return on its investment through this partial exit.”
Everest Fleet recently announced funding of USD 20 million led by Uber. This is Uber’s first inorganic investment in India as it looks to expand into electric vehicle (EV) space for which it has partnered with several fleet operators including Everest. On the other hand, this funding will enable Everest to transition from being a CNG-dominated fleet to one with CNG and EVs over the next five years. By 2026, it aims to have 10,000 EVs as part of its overall fleet.
Rockstud Capital had invested in Everest Fleet in 2019 when the Company had presence only in Mumbai with 150 cars. Today, Everest is the largest fleet manager with over 13,000 cars spread across seven cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata. It has now also started deploying EVs after placing an order for 5,000 cars to Tata Motors at the beginning of the year.
Since 2019, Artha has invested Rs 10 crore in Everest Fleet. Recently, Everest Fleet closed a funding round of USD 20 million, led by Uber. This marks the first exit for Artha Venture Fund-I, which has a total investment of Rs 225 crore.
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