Avataar Venture Partners to invest $300 million in B2B and SaaS companies

Mohan Kumar, a former partner at Norwest Venture Partners and Nishant Rao, the former chief operating officer at the Chennai-based SaaS firm Freshworks, have launched Avataar Venture Partners, whose maiden fund will have HarbourVest, the global fund-of-funds, as its single Limited Partner or sponsor.

The $300 million fund will invest in business-to-business (B2B) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.

For Boston-based HarbourVest, one of the world’s largest private equity investment managers with an estimated $58 billion under management, this will be its first-ever direct exposure to a VC fund operating in India and South-East Asia.