Unicorn India Ventures (UIV), based in Mumbai, has announced the first closing of its Rs 1000 crore Fund III the first close was at 225 crore rupees.
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In order to capitalize on Unicorn India's expertise in global SaaS and digital platforms, UIV plans to employ this Fund to create a portfolio of 25 businesses. The Fund is examining the more recent climate tech, agritech, space tech, and semiconductor ecosystem industries from the standpoint of the sector.
Here is the list of Unicorn Startups in India.
Unicorn India Ventures, a technology-focused early-stage venture fund that invests in businesses in developing industries, was founded in 2016 by Bhaskar Majumdar and Anil Joshi.
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Unicorn India Ventures would continue to pursue their goal of being the "first institutional investor" with the Fund III. The Fund would consider investing a first check of between $1 and $2 million before considering investing in the subsequent round.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures says, “We continue to identify innovative business models with faster scalability. The metrics for us is a clear path to profitability for the companies. Being the first institutional investors, before doing any investment we spend considerable time with the founders to understand their vision, team’s capabilities, growth plans and leadership style. Our focus is to invest in companies that are enablers of India’s digitisation across sectors. We avoid high cash burn businesses like D2C, Consumer Internet, content businesses.”
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Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures says, “We have always believed in the Bharat story as much as the India story. While we have invested in startups from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore but over 60% of our portfolio is built from startups coming from emerging regional hubs like Kochi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune and Hyderabad amongst others. Unicorn is perhaps the only fund which has worked tirelessly with state govt in Kerala, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh to roll out startup policy with an aim to find high potential startups from tier 2 and 3 cities. Our key differentiator is that we are present across India and believe that India’s startup landscape has changed immensely over the past couple of years. With this third fund, our commitment to nurture Indian startups will be unwavering and we will keep scouting for highly innovative companies whose disruptive solutions can address real life problems of users by leveraging technology.”
He is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. Discussing his new responsibilities, Bikram Mahajan, Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “Leveraging my track record and experience, I aim to contribute my knowledge, network and expertise to help the fund scale its business.”
Kamlesh Ahuja comes as VP (Fund Operations), in charge of the back-office management and compliance for all the Funds. He has worked with trustees and major cross-sector funds for 15 years in fund operations.
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From its inaugural fund, UIV has made investments in 17 businesses, including, but not limited to, SmartCoin, Open Bank, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, Clootrack, and FutureCure. Over the previous year, the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) was greater than 60%. With the excellent exits it gave its LPs, the Fund has become India's best-performing early-stage fund. A $300 million fund called Fund II was established in 2020 and has so far invested in 20 businesses, including Gamerji, ForeignAdmits, Probus, and Daalchini.
About Unicorn India Ventures
Unicorn India Ventures, an Indian venture fund with a focus on early-stage technology, was established in August 2015. At Unicorn India Ventures, they are seeking to partner with and invest in passionate entrepreneurs who want to create global market-leading businesses by upending established industries or providing innovative technology-driven goods and services that address real-world issues for consumers or businesses. They are committed to helping these initiatives throughout their early life cycles with initial and follow-on investments in the region of INR 1 to 10 crore.
They invest in the seed and early stages of technology-focused firms. In addition to investing in the firms, They are dedicated to working closely with the founders to create market-leading enterprises. extensive operational, investing, and entrepreneurial experience of our investment team.