Motilal Oswal Real Estate (MORE), the realty-focused private equity arm of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, has clocked the first close of India Realty Excellence Fund V, its fifth real estate fund. Launched with a target corpus of Rs 800 crore, the fund has received commitments of around Rs 650 crore so far. The remaining capital will be raised over the next couple of months.

The new fund has been raised from high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) and family offices, and it has been set up as an alternative investment fund (AIF Category II). IREF V will focus on providing senior secured debt in post-approval projects and it plans to deploy the capital in mid-income or affordable residential projects across top seven cities, while also investing in select commercial projects.

IREF V plans to execute 12-15 transactions over its entire fund life. Till date, MORE has funded 89 projects via 68 investments and exited 33 investments. With IREF V, MORE’s cumulative assets under management (AUM) will cross Rs 4,400 crore. MORE is a part of Motilal Oswal Private Equity (MOPE), the alternative investment platform of Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

MORE has concluded its first investment from IREF V with Shriram Properties Ltd in Bengaluru, with a commitment of Rs 40 crore. There has been an enormous gap in construction finance available in the sector over the last two years after the NBFC crisis and now the Covid-19 pandemic.