PointOne Capital, a pre-seed focused VC fund, has announced the first closing of its maiden fund. The SEBI registered CAT-1 AIF which targets early seed stage startups, plans a total corpus of INR 50 crore with a ticket size of up to INR 1 crore per startup.
The fund counts entrepreneurs, PE & VC firm partners, CXOs & senior corporate leaders as its LPs. PointOne aims to solve the funding gap for startups at the pre-product and revenue or the beta launch phase with very early traction.
Speaking about this, Archana Priyadarshini (Managing Partner): Ex-Unicorn India Ventures, said, “Having met over 500 startups in the last 5 years, I have seen that initial days are the most difficult in a founder’s journey. At such a stage, guidance along with capital becomes very important as founders need support in clearly articulating their vision, preparing a focused output-oriented pilot and defining the initial GTM. Through PointOne, we strive to be that pillar of support for the founders and also learn from them during that process. , ”
Adding further, Mihir Jha(Managing Partner): Ex-LetsVenture, UrbanCompany (formerly UrbanClap), said, “Raising funding at a beta stage or pre-PMF stage is challenging for founders – it becomes too risky vis-a-vis the traction for larger VCs unless the founders come with a proven entrepreneurial track record. We are willing to take those risks in favor of the opportunity and the new insights the team brings to the table. Another problem is feedback in cases where an investor is not interested in investing. PointOne believes in changing that paradigm. Our conviction is that a pointed feedback at early stages of venture building will contribute manifold to increasing the overall efficiency of the Indian startup ecosystem. We aim to provide this to every entrepreneur whom we engage with.”
Ravish Ratnam(Managing Partner): Ex-LetsVenture, added, “Our country is producing entrepreneurs at an unprecedented rate – needless to say, capital needs to catch up. PointOne has been set up to partner with the founders at the most fundamental stage, one which has the most number of variables(and hidden variables). We are glad to have the backing of industry experts from India and abroad in our first close as it opens up a powerful network which our portfolio founders can leverage as they navigate through their zero-to -one journey.”
PointOne calls itself the “earliest early stage VC” and vouches for its speed of decision making.
Prior to this, The VC fund has been investing in similar ventures through their angel syndicate. Some of these ventures have already raised their next round of funding within 6 months of PointOne’s syndicate investment. Although largely sector agnostic they are primarily targeting large untapped opportunities in Fintech, Consumer Internet, Gaming, SMB SaaS, Enterprise SaaS, Healthcare and Ed-tech. They plan least 1 investment per month going forward.
-AK
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.