In India, Fund Takes Shape In Hunt For Tech Unicorns

In the quest for the fabled unicorn, the tech kind, a new VC fund is taking shape.

As reported in news by TechCrunch, two tech mavens hailing from India have started a new venture capital fund, which will look to shepherd tech startups toward billion dollar valuations. There are eight such companies extant in India, ranging from Paytm to Ola, the ride-hailing firm.

The two founders behind Fundamentum Partnership are Nandan Nilekani, who is the former CEO of Infosys, and Sanjeev Aggarwal, venture capitalist with Helion Ventures. The VC fund is launching with $100 million, half of which is already committed.

“We believe that we need companies that are marathon runners built to scale and speed [by] entrepreneurs who want to leave a legacy … [The venture capital fund is] not really so much for startups but for ‘scale-ups,’ because we think the challenge is how companies become large, and do things with speed, scale and flexibility,” Nilekani told TechCrunch. The search and the funding would, of course, seek to add to the unicorns just mentioned.

Initial deployments of funding for the tech startups will be tied to series B and C deals, and range between $10 million to $25 million. Deals will number two or three annually. The fund will eventually be boosted to $200 million, with a mission to be “vertical agnostic,” as TechCrunch noted, and a deal time frame, for the first investment, within a few months.