January 3, 2012
Happy New Year 2012 to everyone.
In continuation of my previous post we are organizing a second ( 2nd ) pitch on January 9th 2012, Monday and the time is 3 pm . This is a closed networking event and only 5/6 startup teams would be selected for the session.
The next pitching session after this Jan event is going to be early March ( probably 1st week of Mar ).
Hence all interested Entrepreneurs/ Startups/ Teams can get in touch.
November 29, 2011
For a while now we have been thinking about doing something about the lack of an Angel Network in Bangalore. Though both IAN & MA have representation here it really makes sense to have the decision making out of this place. There is no doubt that they are both doing a great service by supporting many startups & entrepreneurs. However I have always felt that for a country as big & as diverse as India we could do with many more Angel networks. Also since Bangalore is the undisputed Tech Hub where most of the startups gets started its only apt that an Angel network based in Bangalore gets going.
Towards that effort recently we had organized a pitching session in Bangalore for 7 startups who were looking for Angel Investments. One of the startups was a US based startup too. There were some individual Angels & a couple of VC Funds & a small super Angel fund who not only wanted to be part of this new Angel Network but also were very encouraging & supportive of this whole new endeavor. Also one of the Angel Investor was a prolific Angel Investor from the US who has done some significant number of investments in India already. This particular pitching session was organized more as an Adhoc/ random session. However going forward we intend to formalize this activity & the pitching session will be held once every bi-monthly or even once every month depending upon the traction.
Until now in India some of the best Technology startups have been happening in Bangalore. However the unfortunate thing was that so far there was no Angel Network/s based here to cater to their needs. So these startups had to reach out to networks which are not headquartered here. Since the decision making is elsewhere it would take a little more time for the startups to hear about their decisions post pitching. Also the Angel networks work well & are generally successful when the startups they support are in the neighborhood ( At least that is what the Angels normally prefer ).
This being the reason the whole intent of this new network is to be of assistance in a quicker & faster way to the early startups in this part of India. The intent is to provide a quick feedback to the startups so that they can focus on their work without the whole pitch being too much of a distraction. This network will be Headquartered & operational out of Bangalore.
So all the promising & interesting startups are encouraged to reach out to us. We also Welcome & Encourage potential sponsors to reach out to us.
November 18, 2011
I intend doing Office Hours every week starting next week ( Nov week of 25th ’11 ) onwards. I have been doing it in an informal & Ad-hoc manner until now. However I would like to start doing it in a more formal manner going forward.
Any Entrepreneur or an Startup can touch base with me on any aspect of their business. They can schedule a call/ meet with me in person to talk on any aspect about their ideas/ BPs.
The proposed office hours will be held usually between 11am – 4pm every Friday.
Look forward to interacting with promising startups/ teams with innovative ideas.
August 30, 2011
I have been trying to raise a small VC Fund to start investing in start-ups for a while now.
I believe that I should start blogging my experience along the way as this will give a great insight to many others.
I have been getting advices/suggestions from some people who tell me that trying to raise a small VC Fund ( $6M ) is probably not the right thing as its way too small and potential LPs may not be interested to invest in such a small fund.
I know that any Fund which is less than $25M is not really feasible/viable as the management fee will be too small to run the Fund operations.
However I need to start investing in a small way ( initially $100K and then go upto $250K ) to develop a track record first, show a few good exits or demonstrate a good appreciation of the earlier investments by getting the portfolio companies to successfully raise a follow on rounds and then maybe do a slightly bigger fund raise ( $50M to $75M ) later. However I would like to stay around $100M fund size as I believe being small is the best way for VC Funds to be alert & to be on the toes.
Hence as a start, i’m looking at raising a small $6M Fund to start investing in $100K initially in early stage start-ups. My intent is to invest in interesting & promising teams which are building great products with a bit of traction in the Indo-US corridor.
In the meantime i’m Mentoring/Advising startups by being on their advisory boards. I’m investing my time & energy to provide strategic advice to them. I have got a few startups funded by Angel/s ( an informal Angel network ). I have also advised one of the startups in raising their Series A investment. I have also invested my personal money in a few start-ups too. All these efforts are towards building a great network which will hopefully go a long way in furthering my intent of raising the VC Fund.
I will continue doing this going forward and will leave no stone unturned in my efforts to raise a small VC Fund.
Currently i’m single in this pursuit of mine and I look forward to like-minded people to partner with me on the fund creation.
I’m also looking for support from people who can add value in any form.
July 12, 2011
I recently attended a couple of startup events in Bangalore. I’m impressed by the amount of buzz the entrepreneurs and the startups are generating of late in India and more so in Bangalore.
In fact Dr.Naren Gupta of Nexus VP mentioned in his short speech that probably the quality of the startups/entrepreneurs in India is beginning to get much better than anywhere else that he has seen ( read it as Silicon Valley ). This statement coming from him is a great compliment to the entrepreneurs here.
There are a few interesting startups that are coming up pretty well. I’m very positive that they will go on to make great companies in the future in their respective domains.
I’m tempted to name some of those startups in my post here. However its still not the right time to mention them and maybe would keep it for another post later.
Also the amount of interest that is generating in general from wannabe Angels, Angel groups ( East Angels ) , current Angels, Super Angels & VCs is at an all time high.
These are good signs that the Indian startup community is vibrant and is kicking well. The entrepreneurs are smart and know that they need to surround themselves with more smarter people.
There is a healthy competition that’s building up amongst the Investors ( for early stage startups ) which is in a way both good and bad. Its good as more startups will have opportunities to raise money and bad because hope the valuations doesn’t shoot up to unnatural levels.
All in all its nice to be based in Bangalore where there is a lot of action happening.
Disclosure : I’m an advisor to East Angels.
July 4, 2011
I have been guilty of not being a frequent blogger for sometime now.
The reason was that they were some interesting developments that were happening at my end. Hence wanted to wait until the developments took proper shape.
Its now culminating into a nice thing. I hope to blog about the new development very soon.
In the last many weeks I have been meeting with many entrepreneurs in Mumbai, Delhi & Bangalore and i’m very pleased with the kind of attempts being made by them.
Various business ideas with different revenue models have all been explored by these entrepreneurs. Also they are more willing to listen and take suggestion from other seniors in the Industry.
Its also heartening to see the amount of interest in setting up of many small VC Funds ( Super Angel Funds ) in the range of $20 – $30M fund sizes.
This bodes well for the start-up community as it will help the capital efficient and smart teams to execute well without being worried about the money that is to be raised in the early phases.
Btw I see a lot of interest amongst the investor community to participate in the Indian Tech Venture as LPs too.
Hopefully in the next 3 – 4 years we will be able to see some really good exits which in turn will bring in more guys ( both entrepreneurs & Investors ) into the start-up ecosystem.
All in all this is an interesting time for both the entrepreneurs and the new early stage VCs that are being set up in India now.
February 18, 2011
Its been a very long time since I have blogged.
Its been a very hectic period all these while and am pleased to inform that the fund raising exercise is getting a big fillip. All the hard work put in has started to yield good results and there are a lot of requests coming in for forging partnerships. More & more people/groups are committing to invest into the funds and its interesting to see that the requests are coming in from different parts of the world.
A few overseas funds have also sought support and have shown willingness to participate in co-investing. Vengo Ventures will front end the deal sourcing, deal flow & subsequent activities.
I’m also seeing some very interesting teams & startups who have starting to create buzz.
Significant interest is coming from the US & the European region. With the kind of interest that has been generated so far, the action in the next few months will be very exciting.
Watch this space for more info.
September 24, 2010
I’m happy to announce that Vengo Ventures is looking to raise a $6M Seed Fund to start investing in the early stage start-ups in India.
There is already an Anchor investor who has come on board and who has committed to invest upto 10-15% of the total fund size. The anchor investor has considerable experience in investments and is a senior executive in the VC circles in India. The initial ground work on the Fund has started and talks are already on with quite a few potential marquee investors ( read LP’s ) to come on board the fund.
The purpose of the fund would be to invest anywhere from $25K upto $100K in start-ups which will have a clear differentiator in the form of an IP. The maximum the fund would invest in the entire lifecycle of the start-up would be $250K.
The focus will be on Start-ups that have a strong team/entrepreneur , which can be capital efficient ( Lean Start-up culture ), an business idea which has a clear path to revenues. Such start-ups can get in touch with me. We believe in being active investors and like to work closely with our portfolio companies in the initial days of the company.
Of the $6M fund $4M is earmarked for the primary seed investments and the remaining $2M will be set aside for follow-on investments into the portfolio companies .
There is considerable interest amongst potential investors and am getting good inquiries from various quarters about the same.
Also if there are any potential investors who are interested to invest in the fund, they can write to me.
I will have more information to provide as regards the fund soon.
June 9, 2010
The last few weeks have given me a better insight into whats needed for the creation of a better ecosystem for start-ups in India. I have been interacting with lots of people both in the entrepreneurial and the investment community and what transpires is that we need a few early stage Angel/Seed funds in India.
The investment of 50-100K is most important to very early stage start-ups along with good Mentoring. Hence going forward I intend to focus my efforts towards this endeavor. I’m currently looking to raise a small Seed Fund which would be utilized to invest in promising early stage start-ups which possess a clear differentiator in the form of an IP. I will leverage my unique experience and relationships in order to get them to the next level of growth.
In fact there is a good enough deal flow and the quality of the start-ups are definitely of the highest order. In fact they are getting better by the day. There is also a good amount of interest amongst a lot of HNI’s, experienced and senior executives in the Industry, successful entrepreneurs , etc., to looking at investing in exciting technology start-ups.
These days a few senior industry executives have told me that they are interested to look at such investment opportunities. A few of my contacts in the US, Middle East, Far East and Europe have expressed similar interests too. There is definitely a growing appetite to look at a different asset class for investments. Since I have been Mentoring a few start-ups since quite sometime I will be the focal point of contact and will channelize all my energies towards the creation of this small Angel/Seed Fund.
To begin with I will start with a couple of investments in promising start-ups and will probably stretch it to a maximum of 3 to 4 early stage companies over a period of time. I would like to check out how this pans out over time and what kind of an impact it creates. Depending on that I can then plan and execute how that model can be scaled up further.
People who are interested to check out what i’m upto and how they would like to involve/ contribute are Welcome to get in touch with me.
I look forward to this exciting journey of mine and will have more info to share after sometime.
March 28, 2010
For the last three to four weeks i’m coming across some smart guys who have some of the brightest ideas in India. It amazing to see so much of energy and passion among young people who want to be different by starting their own ventures. I believe if the right support structure is created we will see a lot of companies getting started.
The likes of Y Combinator, TechStars, Launchbox Digital, etc., are doing a great job in the US. Many interesting start-ups coming out of these have been successful either in getting acquired or by getting a follow-on funding.
Its time for similar things to happen (the start-up ecosystem to get better) in India. I believe there is a lot of scope & room for many Start-up accelerators to start providing such services here. The entrepreneurs need some sort of assistance that will help their ventures to accelerate to the next stage of growth. Mentors need to be part of such groups to make these start-ups be more successful.
India needs such Micro VC Funds or Start-up accelerators. They help in the creation of innovative companies and hence inspiring people to start taking calculated risks. They are contributing a lot to the start-up ecosystem.
Hopefully you will get to hear more about such start-up accelerators doing their bit in India. I will keep you posted on some interesting developments in this space soon.
