Unicorn India Ventures unveils second equity fund, to focus on B2B startups
The Rs 400-crore fund will focus on "tech-heavy sectors" like AI, robotics, IOT, 3D cybersecurity, fintech as well as SaaS, gaming, and digital content.
Mumbai-based Unicorn India Ventures (UIV) on Monday announced a Rs 400 crore tech-focused fund to back B2B companies in the pre-Series A and Series A stage. UIV will be raising capital from institutional and large family offices in India as well as other markets for the second equity fund. It has already received commitments amounting to Rs 50 crore.
The fund will focus on "tech heavy sectors" like AI, robotics, IOT, 3D cyber security, fintech as well as SaaS, gaming and digital content. Its first close is expected at Rs 150 crore by the end of the year.
UIV, which Anil Joshi co-founded with Bhaskar Majumdar, has invested in 20 early-stage startups so far. These include Open Bank, Boxx.ai, Clootrack, VanityCube, Sequretek, Pharmarack, GrabonRent, Inntot, Genrobotic, SectorQube, Perfit, NeuroEquilibrium, SmartCoin, and OpenApp.
(In June, Open Bank secured a $30 million funding led by Tiger Global.)
Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said in a statement,
“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... Today, our portfolio from the first fund is one of the best performing in the industry and we hope to continue our track record.”
This is Unicorn Ventures' third global fund. Its portfolio also includes a UK-India cross border fund with UK-based early stage VC AscensionVentures.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said,
“Having a cross border fund helped us in getting insights from mature economies. 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."
UIV's investment mantra is to put in Rs 3-5 crore at the early stage in high growth startups, and go up to Rs 10-30 crore in the Series A and Series B rounds.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
