Capfort Ventures, a micro-venture capital firm started by Abhimanyu Bisht, the former chief executive of startup incubator and early-stage venture capital firm Venture Catalysts, has hit the fundraising trail for its maiden fund.
Capfort joins a growing number of micro-VCs in India, where early-stage investment has traditionally been dominated by angel networks and large VC firms. The number of active micro-VCs grew from 65 in 2021 to 80 in 2022, according to Bain & Company's India Venture Capital 2023 report, which used data from VCCEdge, the research platform of VCCircle. Micro-VCs, which typically raise $20-30 million from their limited partners, helped to bridge the funding gap at the pre-seed and seed stages even as larger VC firms and private equity investors tightened their purse strings, the report said.
Capfort has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to float its debut fund, aimed at supporting early-stage startups, Bisht told VCCircle. He said the firm has already commenced fundraising activities.
The fund aims to raise Rs 200 crore, with a Rs 100 crore greenshoe option. It aims to achieve its first close by the end of this calendar year.
"In terms of LPs, we will primarily raise funds from domestic investors such as family offices, ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutions," Bisht said.
Bisht said the fund's main focus would be pre-Series A startups with valuations ranging from Rs 60 crore to Rs 100 crore, addressing what he perceives as a significant market gap.
With his experience in advising and managing investment funds, angel networks, and corporate venture capitalists since 2010, Bisht said the fund would adopt a sector-agnostic approach while prioritizing investments in the technology domain. He also said that the fund would avoid excessive investments in the direct-to-consumer segment and instead concentrate on impact-oriented sectors like agritech and cleantech.
Bisht, who served as CEO at Venture Catalysts for about two-and-a-half years starting in September 2020, has partnered with angel investor Kavit Sutariya to establish the fund.
During his tenure as CEO of Venture Catalysts, Bisht oversaw the management of the firm's angel fund, participating in over 250 investment rounds in 2021 and 2022, and supporting around 200 startups.
Prior to his time at Venture Catalysts, Bisht led the north India operations for angel investment platform LetsVenture from October 2017 to August 2018. He also worked as a manager at TLabs, an accelerator of Times Internet that invests in idea- and seed-stage tech startups.
Sutariya has invested in over 70 companies across various sectors and stages. Since April 2008, he has also been involved with his family's diamond business, where he launched the real estate vertical, overseeing the construction of residential and commercial projects in Mumbai and Gujarat. Some of Sutariya's notable angel investments include FarEye, Reshamandi, Truemeds, and Zingbus.
