Kisho Capital Launches Rolling Fund The fund plans to support about 20 startups annually by investing upto INR 1 crore in each under its programme
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Delhi-based early-stage venture capital fund Kisho Capital announced the launch of a rolling fund – which will focus on startups looking to capitalize on a tech-focused India growth story – the world's second-largest internet market.
The fund plans to support about 20 start-ups annually by investing upto INR 1 crore in each under its programme.
Kisho Capital's fund model is oriented towards startups in the Seed/Pre-Series A rounds which are technologically advanced with initial traction, especially those that use artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML0 for personalization and automation.
The investors onboarded come from highly successful startup founders and a few of India's corporate houses. This gives the funded startups a very high level of strategic advantage in terms of the advice, mentoring, and real-world connections that are almost impossible for an early-stage startup to access.
Founded by entrepreneurs and investors, Akshay Chhugani and Ankush Nijhawan, the firm's goal is to deliver top-quality investment advice to all their investors with the best in class due-diligent and access to some of the best mentors expertise in the Indian startup ecosystem.
The company seeks opportunities in scalable technology sectors for a better tomorrow such as home automation, healthtech, social community, business-to-business (B2B), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and fintech companies.
"The whole idea for Kisho Capital was conceptualized as a rolling fund with investors from a few of India's biggest corporate houses and start-ups who come together both financially and strategically to build the future of Indian start-ups. Our primary focus is to back early-stage founders who are not only passionate about solving core user issues but also understand the business and scalability side of things," said Ankush Nijhawan, co-founder, Kisho Capital.
The rolling fund gives the company the flexibility to raise a fraction of the total fund and start investing straight away with quarterly/annual commitments from the investors.
The company is sector agonistic and encourages startups from varied fields from banking to insurance to logistics to healthtech or a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand, ensuring there is a big enough market size of the sector that an entrepreneur is trying to solve for.
"The opportunity for early-stage investing is still in its nascent stages in India given the huge youth population and the brilliant mindsets of the entrepreneurs combined with the never-ending on-ground issues that exist. A lot of venture funding is still concentrated in the metro cities namely Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, however, we have witnessed some very successful start-ups coming out of tier-II cities and beyond," added Akshay Chuggani, co-founder, Kisho Capital.
Kisho Capital is in a way a fund by founders, for founders, and of founders, the company said.
Their current mentor board includes Sandeep Dwivedi, COO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient; Sahil Jain, co-founder, Dineout; Azhar Iqubal, co-founder, inShorts; Pushkar Singh, founder, LetsTransport; Vikas Bagaria, founder, PeeSafe; and the advisory board of Gaurav Bhatanagar, Ishpreet Gandhi and Tripti Singhal.
