Seedfund: How to start an venture under a million dollars

Isn't it ironic when an entrepreneur says that it was difficult to raise seed funding because investors thought the business was different and unproven. One would imagine a new differentiated perhaps disruptive business is what investors would chase. Back in 2005, this was a big ask. After the 2001 bloodbath, investors willing to take a bet on ideas were few. Besides there was big money in late stage deals, but some investors thought differently and took a plunge.

CNBC-TV18 talks to Bharati Jacob, Pravin Gandhi and Mahesh Murthy of Seedfund one of the biggest seed-stage fund in India having invested in 24 ventures so far.

The team at Seedfund, which was set up in 2006, believes that it is possible to start an enterprise in India for under a million dollars and its investment strategy revolved around simply finding any company that solves real problems of real consumers in real India.

So far two funds have been raised and both have been sector agnostic. The first fund has already had successful 9X exit in carwale.com.

Pravin Gandhi, founder-partner, Seedfund says, "Whole way to look at any deal is not to say: I will only do technology; I will only do this, I will only do that. It is to look at whether the sector has an opportunity to succeed in India."

Bharati Jacob, founder-partner, Seedfund says, “What catches our eye is something different and unique. We invest in unproven sectors, so something different that we haven’t seen before or some of them speak to us as consumers.”

Mahesh Murthy, founder-partner of Seedfund says, "What we forget is, that there is space for a high quality 21st century cutting edge hospital in those smaller towns. We have 20-25 hospitals right now. We have built a successful brand already. It’s the largest chain of semi-urban hospitals in India currently. Its only a uniquely Indian problem in an uniquely Indian way and I really like the fact that its not the application of some silicon valley technology or something in China, here its really the application of an Indian solution to an Indian problem."