SRI Capital launches $100 Mn fund to foster Indian and US startups

After a plenty of fund launch for late-stage startups, there has been a sudden rise of funds dedicated to early-stage startups this year.

The latest in the league is SRI Capital. The seed-stage investor has closed the first of its debut venture capital fund at $40 million.

Hyderabad-based SRI Capital, which is managed by veteran investor Sashi Reddi and operating partner Philadelphia-based Doc Pargh, is aiming to raise $100 million which it plans to invest in early-stage technology start-ups in India and the US.

The fund has secured a $20 million from the family office of Reddi and will raise capital primarily from investors in the US and Europe.

The focus of the fund is to bridge the gap between India and the US startup ecosystem. SRI Capital believes that Indian VCs have struggled to support these US-focused start-ups whereas US-based VCs typically do not understand India-based tech teams. This is the gap that SRI Capital will fill.

The fund aims to typically invest between $1 million and $3 million in a startup with the potential to invest in future rounds to support the growth of the company. It expects to do 6-8 investments per year.

SRI Capital is not new to the Indian ecosystem and has backed over 15 start-ups with this US-India model over the last 5 years. YuppTV, HealthifyMe, and FabHotels are some of the early investments of the fund.

Last month, it invested in a Delhi-based India Sports Flashes Pvt. Ltd, which operates sports content app Sports Flashes.

Early-stage ignites again

Recently, early stage-focused venture capital consortium Indian Angel Network (IAN) raised Rs 227 crore for its maiden fund which was launch in April last year.

The maiden fund is primarily focused on sectors including healthcare and medical devices, software as a service, marketplaces, fintech, big data, artificial intelligence, and hardware.

Last year, tech-focused VC firm IDG Ventures, Unilever Ventures and Amazon Internet Services Pvt. Ltd (AISPL) joined hands to invest in early-stage startups in technology domain.

The IDG Innovation Programme (IDGIP) was aimed at investing in start-ups, which are looking to raise seed/Series A funding rounds in the range of $0.5 Mn to $5 Mn. It will primarily focus on consumer tech, software, health-tech and fintech products space.

The development was reported in Mint.