Unicorn India Ventures announces first close of Fund III at Rs 225 Cr

Mumbai-based Unicorn India Ventures (UIV), an early-stage fund house with a pan India presence, has announced the first close of its Rs 1,000 crore Fund III. The first close has already reached Rs 225 crore and final close is expected by March 2024. 

With this Fund, UIV aims to build a portfolio of 25  startups that are focused in global SaaS and digital platforms, Unicorn India’s expertise areas. From the sector's perspective, the fund is looking at newer sectors of climate tech, agritech, spacetech and the semiconductor ecosystem. 

Started in 2016 by Bhaskar Majumdar and Anil Joshi, Unicorn India Ventures is a technology focused early-stage venture fund that invests in startups in emerging  sectors. Post the closure of the First Fund, Unicorn India Ventures launched Fund II, a Rs 300 crore fund launched in 2020. The second Fund has a portfolio of 20 companies. With two funds under management and an active portfolio of over 35 companies. 

The Fund I with a corpus of Rs 100 crore invested in companies like SmartCoin, Open Bank, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, Clootrack and FutureCure. The Fund II invested in 20 companies like Gamerji, ForeignAdmits, Probus, Daalchini, Esmito and Finin. The Fund III now looks at investing a first cheque of around $1-2 million and then invest in the follow-on round.

As a part of their investment thesis, UIV invests only 20% of its investible corpus to create the portfolio and the rest to back the winners of the portfolio.