India Quotient Launches Its Fourth Fund At $80 Mn From Global And Domestic Allocations The platform targets paper stage startups that will lead transformation across edtech, fintech, and SAAS sectors in India

Early-stage venture capital (VC) fund India Quotient on Thursday announced the launch of its fourth fund for the Indian startup ecosystem.

The fund will be focused on supporting paper-stage startups who are striving to make a difference in the software-as-a-service (SaaS), social media, direct-to-consumer (D2C) edtech, and fintech spaces.

"We are extremely excited to launch our fourth fund after five successful career investment cycles till date, at an inflection point in India's growth story. We will back founders when nobody understands them, and we will back them again and again. But it's mandatory that they aim very high, have the capability to take on large incumbents and want to build companies that go on to IP0. They could have easily gone and worked for Facebook or Google, but they won't just settle for that. Our founders don't look like corporate executives, just as we don't look like VCs," said Anand Lunia, founding partner, India Quotient.

With a total corpus of approximately $80 million from global and domestic allocations, The VC fund is looking to support 35-40 game-changing ideas that will create whole new sectors.

"We truly believe that the time is right for India to put forth not just one but the next several global game-changing ideas with our depth of technology expertise and penchant for innovation. With the right ecosystem partners backing their story, there is no reason for any Indian startup to not only churn out great ideas but also build businesses of the future. We aim to create long-lasting institutions which are a combination of commercial success and ingenuity," stated Madhukar Sinha, partner, India Quotient.

In addition to being the first investor when there is no proof of performance or future prospects, India Quotient also brings with it the strength of its network of successful founders, mentors, and access to follow on capital, the company said.

"We live and breathe India, lead the life of a normal Indian and this gives us a nose for unearthing innovations that are not copy cats of global businesses. If you are comfortable forecasting the nature of consumption and markets in the future, it's a matter of taking calculated risks and portfolio management to generate sustained returns for our investors. We are expanding our global investor base and will work with about 20 family offices in India. These business houses bring us credibility, access to markets and their world of wisdom and we give them access to investments that were hitherto available only to overseas money," Sinha further added.

India Quotient has been said to have already funded close to 70 startups over the last eight years. Of the portfolio companies the venture fund has backed, nearly 80 per cent have gone on to raise funds for follow-on rounds from global investors and nearly a third of the companies have gone on to achieve massive scale for their businesses.

While the partners were associated in the past with Rebel Foods, Redbus among others, some of the success stories from the company stables include LendingKart, ShareChat, Sugar, Pagarbook, and Vyapar.