ThinKuvate, an angel investment network based in Singapore on Tuesday launched its first India-focused Fund ThinKuvate India Fund – I with a corpus of Rs 100 crore. The network said the new fund will back technology startups across sectors with an initial amount of up to Rs 3 crore.
The fund will look to deploy capital in 12 – 15 startups annually beginning with cities like Nagpur, Raipur, Bangalore and Chennai to tap into startups from emerging hubs.
Speaking on the launch, Ritesh Toshniwal, Founding Partner, ThinKuvate, said, “Over the last 7 years, we have built a strong portfolio of over 22 companies in India and SEA. Our understanding of both the markets puts us in a unique position of facilitating international LPs’ growing interest in India.”
From its existing portfolio, the network has already backed Indian startups. The performance of these companies coupled with macros of the Indian economy, and growing investors’ interest played a crucial role in ThinKuvate launching an exclusive India fund, said Toshniwal.
ThinKuvate, with an investor base of close to 200, hopes to mark first close of the fund within this quarter and begin deploying capital from the next quarter. It has made two exits so far, with one portfolio company listing on the Australian Stock Exchange. Close to 40 per cent of its portfolio has secured follow-on rounds.
“We are already evaluating several startups and are in advanced stages of discussions with them. Our fund has been investing in India since 2016 and has a first-hand experience of the large market and growth potential India has to offer to the World,” said Addison Appu, Partner, ThinKuvate.
The new fund will look at startups generating revenue with early traction and market acceptance. Moreover, it would prefer to back patented product startups with two or more founders.
ThinKuvate also has interests in the UK, Middle East, LatAm, Australia and the USA. Initially investing approximately $1.5 million across nine startups in Southeast Asia and India, ThinKuvate Ventures said it has since facilitated investments of $5 million across 22 startups in the region focusing around investing in B2B and B2B2C startups across various sectors, including health-tech, fintech, IoT, AI-ML, consumer-tech, and martech.