Leading Indian law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has acted for Bengaluru-headquartered growth fund Elev8 Venture Partners, which has led $50 million Series D fundraise by fintech company Smallcase, which was advised by Jerome Merchant + Partners. The round included participation from new investors State Street Global Advisors & Niveshaay AIF and existing investors Faering Capital & Arkam Ventures.
Selling shareholders WEH Venture Partners and PeakXV were represented by Samvad Partners and Aretha Legal respectively.
The investment marks Elev8 Venture Partners’ third major deal.
Bengaluru-based Smallcase plans to use the fresh capital to expand its product offerings across mutual funds, fixed income, and other asset classes. It will also strengthen its technology and data analytics capabilities.
Incubated in Zerodha’s Rainmatter, Smallcase operates a model portfolios platform, allowing investors to buy curated baskets of stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Investors are keen on India’s wealthtech sector as retail participation in financial markets booms. Platforms like Smallcase are positioning themselves as alternatives to traditional investment avenues.
The CAM team was led by partner Pooranima Hariharan with the support from principal associate Aarthi Sashikumar, senior associates Abhinav Sankaranarayanan and Aiyush Gupta, and associates Anish Meduri, and Mahek Khandelwal.
Partners Lakshmi Prakash (fintech), Rutu Gandhi (Securities Regulatory Practice) (SRP) and Arya Tripathy (intellectual property, information technology and data privacy) assisted on the deal.
Samvad’s Delhi-based team representing WEH Venture Partners comprised partners Junaira Rahman and Riddhima P Murjani, senior associate Akhairaj Singh and associate Ayush Rastogi.
Aretha’s team advising PeakXV included founding partner Nitin Gera and partner Divya Jyoti Mehra.
