Unicorn set for final close of maiden fund
Unicorn India Ventures, an early-stage investment fund, is set to announce the final close of its 100-crore maiden fund, said Bhaskar Majumdar, a co-founder.
The announcement is likely next month, after some paperwork for an investment from an institution. The fund, backed by domestic institutions like Small Industries Development Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India, had announced the first close at ~40 crore in January.
While these two brought in 20 per cent of the corpus, family offices of business families contributed 40 per cent. High networth individuals chipped in with 20 per cent. Another 20 per cent came from two foreign investors, said Majumdar, without disclosing names.
“We are a hybrid fund. We start with angel investment and then do follow on a investment round,” said Majumdar, a tech investor who has successfully exited two start-ups. ‘‘We invest into businesses with a year old client validation. Some revenue. The first cheque is typically ~1 crore. We will use ~25 to ~30 crore on creating the portfolio,” he said.
The fund has already invested in six start-ups and will announce investments in two more firms in the next few weeks. It wants to invest in business to consumer, business to business and Internet of Things-enabled businesses. Majumdar co-founded the fund in 2015 with Anil Joshi, an angel investor with Mumbai Angels and Bangalore Angels. The fund received regulator approval in July last year. The fund has raised money from large old economy family offices, who are investing in start-ups for the first time. “We wanted to do consciously, was to broaden this base,” he says.
Beside the Birla family and Mundhra family of Simplex Industries, it has raised money from others in the construction and chemicals business.