US based Mayfield Invests in AngelPrime, a Bangalore Based Incubator
AngelPrime, a Bangalore-based incubator founded by three Silicon Valley "returneee" entrepreneurs and former volunteers of India’s prestigious Unique ID project, announced an investment from Mayfield Fund and other prominent investors. The investment will be used as seed capital for the companies that AngelPrime plans to incubate over the next 3 years and to fund the operations of AngelPrime.
AngelPrime’s founding partners, Bala Parthasarathy, Shripati Acharya and Sanjay Swamy, bring experience from US companies such as Mayfield Fund alumni company Snapfish (acquired by Hewlett Packard) and ZipDial and big company experience from Cisco, IBM and Xerox. Under
AngelPrime’s unique *start-up studio* model, the partners work closely with entrepreneurs to incubate companies, provide hands-on mentoring, seed capital of approximately INR 1-3 crores (USD $200K-$600K), and a co-working leading-edge facility in Bangalore. The AngelPrime team has actively incubated 3 companies in the past two years including ZipDial, Ezetap and Unamia, and plans to incubate and groom 3 companies per year.Mayfield Fund is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with over a 43-year history of investing in early-stage companies which have grown into household names in the technology industry. The firm has over $3 billion under management and recently raised its fourteenth fund, the $365 million Fund XIV. Mayfield also has a dedicated Mayfield India fund of $111M for investing in early stage revenue generating companies primarily in non-technology sectors. The firm’s lead Managing Director Navin Chaddha, has a proven track record with over 35 investments, 11 of which have gone public and 9 have been acquired. Some of his current and past investments in India include Bharat Matrimony, IL&FS Investmart, MakeMyTrip, Persistent Systems and Suzlon.
“Our motto at Mayfield Fund is to invest in relationships and we have known the world-class team members at AngelPrime since their Snapfish days,” said Chaddha. “We believe that a *global playbook* approach to investing which identifies trends that work across borders but are customized to specific geographies will yield several industry-leading companies out of India. But it will require heavy lifting at the earliest stages from an experienced and passionate team such as the one at AngelPrime. Between this partnership with AngelPrime and the focus of our Mayfield India fund, we are in a great position to participate in companies from incubation through their post-revenue early stages in the technology and non-technology sectors.”
“Our mission at AngelPrime is to foster entrepreneurship by providing all the necessary factors to get an idea from incubation to viability. We plan to create three big startups a year with deep technology or other expertise that takes months if not years to build," says Bala Parthasarathy, of AngelPrime. “While our companies will primarily be India-focused, with a partner like Mayfield Fund, we now have a direct connection to the Mayfield India team as well as to the best ideas and talent in Silicon Valley and the US.”
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