Seedfund kicked off its operations formally today. The fund size is in the range of Rs 45-60 crore ($10-13 million), and they will invest any sum upto $500,000 (Rs 2.25 crore) in a venture. The fund has institutional investors like Motorola Ventures, Reliance Capital, SVB Financial Group, Sierra Ventures and individual investors like Kanwal Rekhi, K B Chandrasekhar, B V Jagadeesh and Sridar Iyengar.
Seedfund’s Managing Partners include Pravin Gandhi, Bharati Jacob (ex-Infinity Venture Fund), and Mahesh Murthy (ex-Passionfund). Gandhi and Jacob had earlier invested in companies like Indiagames and Indiabulls at early stage and had a great exit. Murthy’s investments include Geodesic and Pinstorm.
Gandhi said in a statement, “There is a dire need for a true early-stage fund in India. In the eco-system, entrepreneurs need a lot of support after they start and before they scale up to a size where they can attract a larger VC’s attention. We exist to plug that gap.”
Murthy had this to offer, “At the seed stage, teams with big ideas need less money and more mentoring from people who have an entrepreneurial background. We hope to attract the best and the brightest business ideas – and we hope we can work with the ones we select, to build great companies.”
Jacob, who will be stationed in Bangalore, said, “We see the next generation of startups taking shape in Bombay and Bangalore – and that is where we’ve set up our offices. Over the next few years, we hope to pick about 20 companies to invest in – and the sectors that interest us are consumer media and technology, internet, mobile, retail and other high-growth sectors.”