Imagine visiting a vineyard in Nashik in 2010.

You taste the wine, enjoy the afternoon and leave with a few bottles.

But alongside the wine, there is another possibility worth considering:

What would it take to build this into a national brand—and could I own part of that journey?

Verlinvest invested in Sula in 2010. Sula listed in December 2022, and Verlinvest sold its final shares in February 2024. 1

For the public-market investor, a new investment opportunity appeared in 2022. For the earlier investor, a relationship stretching across more than a decade was already approaching its final chapters.

Some people bought the wine. Others backed the business behind it.

Private investing begins with that change in perspective.

Mutual funds help you participate in businesses through professional management. Specialised Investment Funds, or SIFs, widen the range of strategies available within their own framework.

For investors with sufficient surplus capital, early stage investing opens another door: owning businesses during stages that a listed portfolio may never capture.

An established manufacturer expanding exports. A healthcare company professionalising its management. A founder with a proven product who needs capital and commercial support to reach the next market.

These opportunities can complement your existing investments. Moving into them should depend on your finances and judgement, rather than a desire to collect a more exclusive product.

A sophisticated portfolio need not resemble a club membership.

Swiggy: Accel co-led its seed round in 2015 and supported subsequent funding rounds. Nearly nine years later, Swiggy listed in November 2024. Its IPO prospectus records an offer for sale by Accel India IV alongside other shareholders. An investment made when the business was young had reached a route to partial monetisation. 2

Bharat Serums and Vaccines: Advent completed its investment in early 2020. In its account of the ownership period, the firm describes strengthening management, increasing the focus on R&D, expanding internationally and pursuing acquisitions. In July 2024, Mankind announced the acquisition at an enterprise value of approximately ₹13,630 crore, subject to adjustments; completion followed in October. 3

Wine, food delivery and specialised pharmaceuticals. Different businesses, different risks, different ownership periods.

The common thread is the work between entry and exit.

Private investors may back a young enterprise, finance a proven business’s expansion or acquire control of an established company. Venture capital, growth equity and buyouts are distinct strategies within the wider private-capital world.

The successful examples are visible. Failed investments and delayed exits belong in the evaluation too.

Consider a hypothetical precision-components manufacturer.

Customers like its product. Orders are growing. But the founder is still the chief salesperson, production troubleshooter and unofficial head of everything else.

Sound familiar?

Growth capital could finance another production line. A capable investment partner could also help recruit a CFO, strengthen reporting, obtain customer certifications and open export relationships.

Over time, the company may become valuable to a strategic buyer, another investor or public markets. None of those outcomes is automatic.

Not every fund is equally involved, and a small direct shareholder may have limited influence.

A higher valuation in a presentation is encouraging. Money returned to investors is the result.

The MSME economy deserves a more ambitious description than “small factories needing loans.”

In 2021, the Technology Development Board announced MSME technology awards recognising companies developing cybersecurity products, digital manufacturing tools and algae-derived ingredients. 4

Alongside such manufacturers, younger Indian technology businesses are tackling difficult problems in hospitals, sanitation and food processing.

Look at the variety:

The first three were recognised in the TDB’s MSME award category; the latter three illustrate younger technology businesses. Together, they show how varied India’s emerging enterprises can be. 4567

Somewhere in this landscape, a founder may have solved the engineering problem but still need help building distribution. Another may have customers but lack the systems required to scale.

If you have built a business yourself, you probably understand that gap better than most people.

That experience can become useful judgement when you evaluate someone else’s enterprise.

For investors who prefer a specialist team to select, negotiate and monitor investments, we offer access to Category II private equity funds.

The attraction is a structured process: business diligence, portfolio construction, governance oversight and planning for exits.

For investors seeking outcomes such as 30–35% XIRR, the work begins with examining whether the fund’s businesses, entry valuations and exit assumptions can support that ambition. This is an aspirational objective, not an assured return; actual results after fees, expenses and taxes may be materially lower or negative.

A manager’s selected success stories should lead to questions about the whole portfolio: losses, unrealised valuations and cash actually distributed.

Professional management gives you a team. It does not remove business risk.

Some investors want a closer relationship with the enterprise itself.

They want to understand the product, meet the founder, examine customer demand and decide whether the ownership terms make sense.

Our new venture-capital vertical focuses on identifying such opportunities for investors to evaluate.

Your operating experience may help you assess a manufacturer, healthcare business, technology provider or consumer company. Where appropriate and agreed, you may also be able to contribute introductions or experience.

But conviction needs diligence: accounts, cash flows, valuation, shareholder rights, dilution, governance and realistic exit possibilities. Direct deals bring greater concentration, and access to a founder does not guarantee influence over the business.

Choose this route because you want to do the work that ownership requires.

You may have spent twenty years building a company, a practice or a career.

You know what it means to win the first customer. Hire someone better than yourself. Invest in capacity before the orders are certain. Recover from a mistake and try again.

Those instincts do not need to retire when your portfolio becomes comfortable.

They can help you recognise another founder’s progress—and ask better questions before backing it.

With that foundation, the conversation becomes far more interesting.

Which businesses could your capital help build?

At Fincare, we can explore both routes with you: professional fund management or the closer study of individual opportunities.

Perhaps the next time you visit a vineyard, a factory or an entrepreneur’s office, you will leave with something more valuable than a brochure.

A question worth investigating:

Could I be part of building this?

Warm regards,

Tejas

Fincare Services

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_{Historical examples illustrate investment journeys and do not predict future returns. Named companies are not presented as available deals. Private investments involve illiquidity and risk of capital loss. The 30–35% XIRR figure is an aspirational objective, not verified fund performance or a promise.}