Micro VCs find solid ground as the venture landscape reshapes
Aviral Bhatnagar, who earlier led enterprise software and artificial intelligence investments for Venture Highway (now merged with US-based General Catalyst), has launched a Rs 100 crore fund to back early-stage Indian startups. The fund, launched by the new venture capital (VC) firm AJVC, will focus purely on pre-seed stage investments while being sector agnostic, he told ET.
The development comes at a time when several new domestic funds and micro venture capital (VC) firms have come up in India. These investors back startups at a very early stage and write smaller cheques than established VC firms. The emergence of the micro VC funds, which are usually smaller and are single partner focused, have added to the diversity of risk capital investing in Indian startups.
Other established micro VC firms include Vaibhav Domkundwar's Better Capital, deeptech-focused firm Java Capital, Delhi-based Sauce VC, which makes consumer sector investments, and $25 million enterprise software-focused Neon Fund.
AJVC is fashioned after A Junior VC, a platform that Bhatnagar launched in 2018 to offer insights into the Indian startup and venture investing ecosystem.
“The firm is focused on pre-seed investments exclusively. We see an opportunity for an institution to be built (that invests) at the pre-seed stage, and will be a fast, approachable, technology-driven firm,” he said.
He said as larger venture capital firms take a safer approach at investing in startups, opportunities to take riskier bets are opening up for younger
