Unicorn India Ventures Raises Rs 225 Crore in First Close of Fund III, Aiming for Rs 1,000 Crore Total
- ByStartupStory | September 5, 2023
Unicorn India Ventures, a Mumbai-based venture capital firm, has announced the first close of its Fund III at Rs 225 crore, with a final close expected by March 2024, targeting Rs 1,000 crore. The fund will be used to build a portfolio of 25 startups primarily focused on global SaaS and digital platforms. Unicorn India Ventures will allocate investments to sectors including climate tech, agritech, space tech, and the semiconductor ecosystem. Initial investments in startups are expected to range from $1 million to $2 million, with follow-on investments planned.
Unicorn India Ventures follows a strategy of investing only 20% of its investable corpus to establish the portfolio and allocates the rest to support portfolio winners. The firm, founded in 2016 by Bhaskar Majumdar and Anil Joshi, focuses on early-stage technology startups and launched a Rs 300 crore Fund II in 2020, which currently includes 20 companies. Most of the startups in its portfolio are either profitable or have plans to break even soon.
“The metrics for us are a clear path to profitability for the companies. Being the first institutional investors, before making any investment we spend considerable time with the founders to understand their vision, the team’s capabilities, growth plans, and leadership style,” said Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures. UIV avoids high cash-burn businesses such as D2C, content, and consumer internet startups.
Joshi said that while the firm has invested in startups from Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, about 60% of its portfolio is “built from startups coming from emerging regional hubs like Kochi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Hyderabad.”
“Unicorn is perhaps the only fund that has worked tirelessly with state governments in Kerala, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh to roll out startup policy with an aim to find high potential startups from Tier II and III,” he added.
The firm avoids investments in high cash-burn businesses such as D2C, content, and consumer internet startups. Approximately 60% of Unicorn India Ventures’ portfolio is comprised of startups from emerging regional hubs like Kochi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Hyderabad. The firm has worked closely with state governments in Kerala, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh to roll out startup policies aimed at identifying high-potential startups from Tier II and III cities.
Unicorn India Ventures has also announced senior hires for Fund III, including Bikram Mahajan as a Partner and Kamlesh Ahuja as VP (Fund Operations).
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