Pandemic eases venture capital fundraising: B.V. Naidu

Pandemic and technology acceleration that followed made venture fundraising easier and quicker, said B.V.Naidu, tech industry veteran and StartupXseed Ventures founder and managing partner.

Commenting on the changes that happened in the funding industry in the last over 18 months, he said putting together a venture fund was a herculean task until a couple of years ago, but it got a lot easier and quicker after the pandemic.

“People and entities (potential investors) are available and willing to talk,” said Mr. Naidu.

“All are convinced about technology acceleration story that is happening all around and how that is impacting the bottom lines of large enterprises and small start-ups. Physical travel is not required. Fund-closing cycles have significantly got shortened.’’

“Thanks to all these, closures are happening in the first or at least in the second meeting itself,” Mr. Naidu told The Hindu.

Venture capital firm, StartupXseed Ventures, has set up a ₹200 crore fund to invest in deep-tech domains across industry verticals.

“The success of our maiden fund gave us the confidence to launch our second fund which will be focused on sector agnostic deep tech areas. The individual ticket size will be in the $1 to $2 million range,’’ said Mr. Naidu added.

According to him, HNIs and family houses in India and the U.S and corporates from U.S, India and Japan have participated in the fund pool.

StartupXseed Ventures was also contemplating a much bigger ₹500-crore fund which is expected to be ready for disbursement sometime in 2022.

“The existing contributors and new others will be part of this larger fund which is expected to be ready sometime next year. The ticket size of the fund will also be big,” Mr. Naidu added.