Nisarg Shah-led VC firm Kettleborough closes maiden fund at $5 million 

Nisarg Shah.

Early-stage venture capital fund Kettleborough led by Nisarg Shah closes its maiden fund at $5 million and the fund will invest in technology-centric startups led by Serial Entrepreneurs and Domain Experts.

Kettleborough was launched as a Solo GP Fund by Nisarg Shah in late 2021, with an aim to invest in promising technology-driven ventures at their seed stages, and co-create them along with their founders.

So far, through this maiden Fund, Kettleborough has deployed capital in five companies including Zippmat with Matrix and Zephyr Peacock, Zocket with Kalaari, and Bytelearn with Leo and Chiratae, and is closing two more transactions with Infoedge and Kae in the coming month, the company said in a media statement on October 12.

“The pre-fund portfolio already has two seed-funded companies at $ 100 million+ valuation and is on track to have two more in the next few quarters. The fund vehicle is just an extension of the work we have been already doing,” said Shah.

Kettleborough follows a strategy of high conviction and deep concentration, Shah added.

The fund will invest in 8-10 companies at seed stage, in the next 12 months, with a cheque size of $150,000-$300,000. Additionally, it will also participate significantly in the follow-on rounds of its portfolio companies.

“Our value-additions range from insights on revenue models to getting upstream investors to enabling business partnerships for the companies,” Shah said.

The fund received a partial exit from Ahmedabad-based cloud-kitchen startup BigSpoon Foods Private Limited in 2020.

“We build up independent conviction on founders and the space they want to operate in at ideation or even before that, bring along relevant partners and help the companies see it through. We have been working with this profile of founders for years now and understand very well how to co-ideate and be complementary alongside them,” Shah added.

“The investment approach has been well refined over years across more than 20 companies before the inception of this VC fund. The pre-fund portfolio already has 2 seed-funded companies at $ 100M+ valuation and is on track to have 2 more in the next few quarters. The fund vehicle is just an extension of the work we have been already doing,” added Shah.

Nisarg Shah-led AIF has been consciously designed to move fast and does not follow the typical procedures of IC or partner, the statement said.