StartupXseed announces final close of Fund II at INR 243 cr, gets oversubscribed by 20%
– The fund has the backing of UHNI’s, successful tech entrepreneurs, reputed family offices and corporates across India, Singapore, Oman, Japan, US amongst others.
– Fund II focuses on placing bets in Enterprise SaaS and in DeepTech verticals and will write a first cheque of INR 5 Cr and INR 12 Cr.
– Fund II plans to add 8 to 10 more disruptive start-ups in the next 12 months.
– Fund I has invested in fast-growing companies like Darwinbox, Bellatrix, Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS) and CloudSEK. Fund II has so far invested in SawoLabs, Zenduty, Jobiak, Smartshiphub, Humalect and others who are witnessing strong business growth.
StartupXseed Ventures, (that launched Aaruha Technology for Fund I and II) an early stage B2B investor with a focus on deep tech start-ups, has announced the final close of its Fund II at INR 243 Cr commitment, 20% more than initially targeted. Along with top family offices and corporates, the fund also saw a participation from its Fund I investors, most of whom doubled their commitment after seeing StartupXseed’s ability to spot and back companies such as DarwinBox, CloudSEK, Bellatrix, AUS (Aarav Unmanned Systems) early. Each of them has become a vertical leader in the APAC region today.
StartupXseed believes in investing in strong founders, capable of designing enterprise solutions with a clear understanding of market barriers and the ability to sell across global markets. By investing early, they are looking at achieving higher RoI by helping start-ups leap into product development, growth strategies, geographic expansion and strengthening organizational capabilities from a nascent stage.
Mr. BV Naidu, Managing Partner at StartupXseed said that “Having expertise in the B2B segment, we have helped founders to gain commendable success and our average markup of past investments is more than 6x. Couple of Fund II LPs doubled their commitment at final close after witnessing similar growth indicators on Fund II portfolio”.
Mr. Ravi Thakur, Co-founding Partner of the fund commented “On the Investments, we primarily look at solutions where the convergence of new business models and technologies is imperative. This way, we are helping ourselves in working on next big verticals ahead of the curve. We are also spending time helping founders double to triple their Topline year on year”.
Besides the existing GPs (Mr. BV Naidu, Mr. Ravi Thakur, Mr. Sid Mookerji, Mr. Ramakrishna V, Mr. Mohan Das Pai {Represented by Aarin Capital} and Mr. V. Balakrishnan), for Fund II, StartupXseed added Dr. Krishna Mikkilineni, Ex-CTO and Board Member of Honeywell Inc as a GP. Dr. Krishna is one of the world’s leading thought leaders in the Technology space, active in the Startup eco-systems in India and United States.
StartupXseed is looking for start-ups with forward innovations in technologies related to cloud migration of brownfield projects, AI-led workflow automation, energy storage technologies for quick discharge applications, cybersecurity for APIs, AI-led ecommerce enablers and others disruptive technologies in respective markets. The typical first cheque size will be between INR 5 Cr. upto INR 12 Cr.
StartupXseed is believed to hold 100 times its investment value in DarwinBox which became a Unicorn this year. They, have already returned substantial capital back to investors of Fund I. Over the next year, they could exit some of their other portfolio companies as their valuation has risen multiple times since their first investment.
About StartupXSeed Ventures
StartupXseed Ventures is an early stage B2B VC firm that invests in seed to pre-series A start-ups. Founded by Mr. B. V. Naidu (Former Director STPI) along with Mr. Mohandas Pai (through Aarin Capital), Mr. Ramakrishna V and Mr. Ravi Thakur, the VC firm was supported by various like-minded people from the Industry, Academia and Professionals. StartupXseed Ventures is the Investment Manager of “Aaruha Technology Fund I and II” registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as Category I – under Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) Regulations 2012.
They are a sector agnostic fund with investments in deep tech, B2B, SaaS to Space (Tech), including the areas of Cyber Security, Semicon, AI/ML, Drones and New Frontier Startups in India with a focus on global markets.
As part of their “Co-Founder Program”, they help start-ups build sustainable businesses by providing strategic support through market access, mentorship, corporate governance, accelerate and follow-on investor connect. They seek investment opportunities from seed to early growth stage, where the start-ups are prepared for growth and are ready for transformation.
