National Start-up Day: Despite slowdown, 100X.VC to continue making 100 investments per year

Homegrown early-stage venture capital fund 100X.VC is supremely bullish about its investments in 2023. Despite the larger macroeconomic sentiment being conservative, at least in the first half of the year, the Mumbai-headquartered fund is confident of making 100 investments. 

“Early-stage start-ups are typically unaffected by complex wide ranging macro issues such as inflation, monetary policy, etc. unlike the equity markets. As a result, we will continue to invest in 100 early-stage start-ups each year, with an overarching goal of 500 start-up investments,” Shashank Randev, Co-founder, 100X.VC, told Business Today.

100X.VC is India’s first VC firm to use India SAFE (iSAFE) notes for providing seed capital to bootstrapped start-ups. We are here to dominate seed-stage investments. With an accelerated investment model, we are building companies with a first cheque funding of Rs 1.25 crore in India’s seed stage start-ups,” Randev stated.

So far, the fund has been sector-agnostic. But it is keen on backing companies that offer tech-enabled solutions. In 2023, 100X.VC is “actively looking” at Web3, fintech, low-code/no-code, EV, D2C, agritech and deeptech start-ups. 

Explaining its focus in these areas, Randev says, “As more businesses and consumers adopt digital technologies, Web3, fintech, and low-code/no-code start-ups in India are expected to grow significantly. As the Indian government pushes for increased adoption of EVs and consumers shift to D2C business models, EV and D2C start-ups will also see tremendous growth.”

When it comes to agriculture, the increasing use of advanced technologies like AI and ML will give a fillip to India’s agritech and deeptech start-ups, according to the investor. 100X.VC also expects a bevy of new start-ups to make a mark this year. 

In an earlier conversation, Sanjay Mehta, Founder & Partner, 100X.VC, had shared, “In 2023, we will be experiencing India, where new start-ups will be unlimited in supply. For investors, this will have brutal investment selection through the process of elimination. Investors who can apply quality filters pick winners in the start-up world while investing in 2023 will be able to see their portfolio shine with outlier returns by 2030.”

Mehta also believes that India’s enormous consumer demand will make sure that it isn’t impacted by the impending global recession.