Start-up world gets three new funds

Exclusive to SME Mentor

The start-up funding space is buzzing. Early stage investment fund Kae Capital raised money from a cluster of venture capital (VC) firms for its maiden fund, the first instance of VCs taking long-term exposure to a small fund. Marquee investors Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Omidyar Network and a fourth that did not want to be identified have contributed about one-fifth to the $25 million (Rs127.25 crore) raised by Kae, which was formed by Sasha Mirchandani, co-founder of Mumbai Angels, India's second-largest angel investors' network.

In another development, YourNest angel fund said it would invest in India focused start-ups. Former Bharti TeleTech CEO Sunil Goyal, along with two other partners, has set up a new early-stage venture capital fund looking to invest in start-ups tapping India's growth story. YourNest is raising Rs 100 crore and expects to make a first close in the next 30-45 days, according to Goyal, CEO & fund manager. The Gurgaon-based venture fund will invest into 12-20 India-focused start-ups.

Also, the week saw the founding of Venture Nursery, a start-up accelerator in Mumbai. Founded by Shravan Shroff, founder and former MD, Fame Cinemas and Ravi Kiran, former CEO-South East & South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group have partnered to launch Venture Nursery (VN), an angel-backed startup accelerator. Kiran is also co-founder and managing partner of Friends of Ambition.

Based on its belief that the angel ecosystem must focus primarily on maximizing the success potential of start-ups, VentureNursery aims to undertake an intensive and immersive coaching and mentoring role in the chosen start-ups and helps each with end-to-end infrastructural and learning support.