Comments
StartupXseed Ventures LLP, a strategic seed funding company founded by industry stalwarts, launched Aaruha Technology Fund (SEBI registered) with an initial investment of ₹30 crore from 20 investors, including T V Mohandas Pai and V Balakrishnan.
The fund will invest ₹50 lakh to ₹1.2 crore in 15-18 start-ups in high technology businesses such as security, semiconductor and embedded devices, and aims to provide stronger support to the start-up ecosystem in India in general and Bengaluru/Hyderabad in particular.
The company plans to raise ₹100 crore for its next fund in six months.
BV Naidu, founder and Managing Partner, StartupXseed, said “The start-up revolution in India is at its peak, and our aim is to nurture this eco-system by utilising the best available resources. StartupXseed is a unique programme combined with seed fund, strategic co-founder programme, strong mentorship, superior international partnerships, market access that is closely supported by the investor/advisory board of StartupXseed – all of which will help transform start-ups into real businesses.”
StartupXseed has made its first undisclosed investment in Bengaluru-based start-up, ShieldSquare, operating in the area of online BOT prevention and internet security, which has customers in 27 countries.
Selection process Naidu said start-ups are selected to be funded after a rigorous selection process, wherein six start-ups are evaluated before selecting one. “We will support start-ups for 18-24 months and exit when follow-on funds like Aarin Capital and Exfinity take over and fund these start-ups to the next level.”
StartupXseed also signed MoUs with leading incubators in Bengaluru set up by IIIT-B, BlueSkyAngels, Dayanand Sagar University and eHealth Technology Business incubator in PES university.
“India is becoming a start-up nation and could create a trillion dollars of value in the start-up space over the next 10 years. While there is a lot of money available from PE/VC funds to start-ups, there is no ecosystem here like in Silicon Valley. Here, angel funds give seed money but they do not hand-hold start-ups to the next level. The ideas from incubators in universities do not transition to the marketplace. StartupXseed is the first fund that will connect all the dots where investors put in the seed capital, become the co-founders, handhold start-ups, participate in the business plan and sales calls and create a product for the marketplace,” said V Balakrishnan, Chairman, StartupXseed.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.