15 July 2019, India:
Venture Fund Unicorn India Ventures has announced the launch of its 2nd equity fund. The Fund size is ₹400 crore and first close is expected at ₹150 crore by the year-end.
This fund will be used to invest in in early stage startups. The Fund II will look to invest in Pre Series A and Series A in sectors like B2B, SaaS, fintech, health tech, robotics, gaming and digital content.
The investment philosophy would be to enter at an early stage with an average investment size of ₹3 – 5 crore and follow up to Series A and B by backing high potential startups. The investment size has the potential to go up to Rs 10-30 crore in follow on rounds, the company said in a statement.
Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “We launched our first fund in 2015 and since then invested in a variety of startups ranging from consumer internet to on demand to media tech. Around late 2017, we actively started scouting for investment opportunities in more tech heavy sectors like AI, Robotics, IOT, 3D cyber security and fintech.”
Anil Joshi, added, “Today, our portfolio from the first fund is one of the best performing in the industry and we hope to continue our track record with the launch of the 2nd fund.”
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures said, “Having a cross border fund helped us in getting insights from the matured economies eg the rise of neo banking in the fintech space in the UK, a global market leader in fintech. That is how when Open Bank came to us, we were aware of the emerging business model and were ready to invest. This gives us a boost and a belief that we have a knack to spot a potential winner in the early days. These factors compounded with the fact that we think like entrepreneurs and stay aligned to their macro vision have resulted in success of our first fund.”
Unicorn India Ventures will be raising capital for Fund II from institutional and large family offices in India and overseas and start deploying it by end 2019.
(Image – Unicorn India Ventures)