Rohan Misra, son of former SoftBank Group Corp. Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra, has launched a new $150 million fund called Gravity Holdings. According to Economic Times, this fund would be used to channel investments into India’s booming tech sector, with backing from domestic family offices, technology founders, and senior executives.
Gravity Holdings has made its debut investment in SaaS startup Darwinbox. Darwinbox is an Indian AI-enabled, mobile-first startup for hiring, onboarding and employee administration, and has raised $140 million from investors including Gravity Holdings, and KKR Partners Group. Darwinbox was valued over $1 billion in its latest funding round, and is set to expand internationally across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, United Kingdom, and the United States. Some of its clientele include Starbucks, Nivea, AXA, Cigna, WeWork, Crisil, and T-Systems.
The younger Misra, a Yale University alum, previously served as a member of the investment team at the California-based Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) for four years before launching his own fund.
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While Gravity Holdings is focused on growth-stage deals, Rohan Misra aims to bring in strategic expertise and network effect for its portfolio startups. It has been launched at a time when the Indian tech investment scene is heating up. Several venture capital executives have of late, launched funds to back Indian startups. For instance, last year, former Premji Invest partner Atul Gupta launched a VC firm Trident Growth Partners (India) to invest in startups operating across consumer, financial services, enterprise software and technology, industrial and manufacturing and healthcare sectors. Similarly, Venture Highway’s Aviral Bhatnagar launched a new venture capital fund called AJVC in August 2024.
Meanwhile, Rajeev Misra stepped down from his executive role as co-CEO at SoftBank to launch his own venture fund. He is known for building a $100 million fund at the Japanese tech venture capital giant and bringing limited partners in the form of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Apple Inc., the government of Abu Dhabi, and others.