Early-stage venture capital firm Fundamental launches maiden fund worth $130 million

Rathi added, “We have realised that there is a strong need for an approachable institutional capital support for early-stage founders. Hence, as partners with a skin-in-the-game approach, we want to ensure that founders stay focused towards building what they enjoy the most, while we take on the responsibility of enabling capital support required to build their venture.”

Fundamental VC also said that it will look to invest in its portfolio startups at follow-on rounds. The VC said the maiden fund is backed by Limited Partners (LPs), which include unicorn founders, high networth individuals, and family offices, among others from geographies such as Singapore, Middle East, and the US, without disclosing further details.

Fundamental VC said it aims to offer a term sheet within a week's time and deploy capital within a period of one month from the closure of the deal. The VC said it sees an “excellent opportunity” to invest in startups at early stages amid the much-talked-about funding winter.

Fundamental VC’s fund launch comes at a time when early-stage funding in India is gaining traction, even as late-stage funding is slowing amid a global slowdown in financial markets. Large VC companies including Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital among others are investing heavily in startups at their early stages.

Earlier this week, Sequoia Capital India extended the seed funding ceiling for Surge, its startup accelerator programme, to $3 million in a bid to back more companies. The VC, which raised its largest-ever fund of $2.85 billion for India and Southeast Asia startups, also reportedly allocated $300 million for Surge.