Early-Stage VC firm First Cheque closes second fund at Rs 38 Cr, plans to invest in 50 startups
- ByStartupStory | July 21, 2022
First Cheque, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced the closing of its second fund at Rs 38 crore. The venture capital business planned to invest in around 50 firms over the next 18 months. Among others, the business has invested in software development startup Kaching, e-commerce venture Mall91, and ed-tech platform Seekho. Over the last three years, the fund has operated as an Angellist syndicate, investing in about 100 entrepreneurs.
First Cheque, a Bengaluru-based pre-seed stage VC firm, was founded in 2008 as a company under the umbrella of India Quotient Venture Capital. Its limited partners are mostly global family offices from India and Singapore. “We are seeking to back ambitious creators with less focus on traditional qualifications such as educational background, prior founding experience, and assurance from other VCs,” stated Prateek Agarwal, investment head at First Cheque.
For each early-stage or pre-seed stage firm, the fund house follows a regular procedure of investing $100,000 at a $2 million value. With the completion of its second fund, the firm’s total assets under management (AUM) now stand at Rs 90 crore. Around 25 percent of the company’s entire investment of Rs 38 crore would go to startups. “Deployments are taking place at a quicker rate.” We have already closed three investments, and then another four to five are nearing completion… “We are writing checks for firms that have been on hold for the previous 2-3 months,” Agarwal explained.
By the end of this month, the business hopes to have 12-14 enterprises in its portfolio. The business takes an agnostic approach to sectors and is willing to assist starting teams at the paper-plan stage. “As a pre-seed investor, our sole aim is to invest in emerging industries.” We anticipate investments in space technology, renewable technology, and climate technology. “We aim to be early entrants in these domains,” Agarwal explained. It will also invite entrepreneurs from the Software-as-a-Service, edtech, HR-tech, and finance industries.
“We’ve all witnessed Y Combinator’s huge success throughout the world. “India has the greatest startup ecosystem after the United States and China, and First Cheque is well positioned to exploit the pre-seed potential here,” said Anand Lunia, the founding partner, India Quotient.
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