India-focused ChrysCapital Partners has reached a first close of USD 1.4bn on its 10th private equity fund, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

The first close took place earlier in March and the institutional hard cap has been set at USD 2bn, the sources added. Including the GP commitment, the final total is likely to be nearly USD 2.2bn.

The fund is oversubscribed, and the fundraising process is expected to conclude towards the end of 2Q25, one of the sources said. For the first time, ChrysCapital is sourcing capital from domestic as well as international LPs. The domestic portion will be approximately USD 200m.

Fund X will be the largest India fund ever raised by an independent manager, AVCJ Research’s records show. The previous high was set last year by Kedaara Capital, which closed its fourth fund on USD 1.7bn, having scaled up from USD 1.08bn in the previous vintage.

ChrysCapital is also making a significant step up. The firm raised USD 1.4bn for Fund IX, hitting the institutional hard cap of USD 1.25bn in late 2022. The increase in size – Fund VIII closed on USD 867m in 2019 – reflects both rapid deployment and more large-cap opportunities.

Speaking to AVCJ in March 2024, Kunal Shroff, ChrysCapital’s managing partner, noted that Fund VII was deployed in three years and Fund IX was on course to at least match that. The firm was comfortable putting USD 600m to work each year, plus another USD 200m in co-investment.

“If we maintained that over five years, the total would be very large, but there will be cycles. Maybe there will be bleak years where we don’t invest anything,” he said.

Annual average private equity investment in India for 2020 to date is USD 41.6bn, according to AVCJ Research. This compares to USD 24.4bn for the five years through 2019.

The firm is writing larger equity cheques in part because it is doing more buyouts. Fund IX features carve-outs from IDFC and HDFC valued at INR 45bn (USD 526m) and INR 103.5bn. These were executed in partnership with other investors, but IT provider Xoriant was a solo deal of USD 350m.

Co-investment is leveraged to address larger opportunities. The average commitment size for Fund IX was expected to be around USD 100m, with smaller growth deals involving technology companies counterbalancing the buyouts.

ChrysCapital’s exit activity in 2024 included the transfer of a minority stake in National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) to a USD 700m single asset continuation vehicle and the sale of GeBBS Healthcare Solutions to EQT Private Capital Asia for an estimated USD 855m.

ChrysCapital did not respond to a request for comment.