Micro venture fund Gemba Capital Monday announced the initial closing of its maiden $10 million fund (around Rs 75 crore), as reported by VCCircle in February.
The micro venture fund will stick to its thesis of backing early-stage startups across SaaS (software-as-a-service), consumer tech and fintech with the first cheque of $250,000 and a 35% reserve ratio for making follow-on investments on the winners. The fund is exploring deep tech themes in 2022 as well. Within consumer tech, the fund is keen on healthtech, gaming and edtech.
Founded by Adith Podhar in 2019, Gemba Capital’s portfolio includes companies like Crejo, Verak, Wint Wealth (earlier known as GrowFix), Strata, inai, Defy, Threado, TranZact among others. Podhar has previously also worked with Motilal Oswal PE Fund and Cipher-Plexus Capital Advisors.
“We have reached the target of Rs 75 crore and will announce the final close soon. We want to close all the ongoing discussions and we should get over-subscribed and touch Rs 100 crore ($13 million),” said founding partner, Adith Podhar.
“Our deal pipeline is strong, and we intend to make our first investment from May this year onwards. Our target remains to close 8 deals by December end”, Podhar added.
Gemba Capital is also looking to add venture partners and team members to its team, it is looking to launch a new ‘Scout Program’ initiative where individuals with a good network will be able to partner with the fund.
We are looking for narrative violations, companies which do not fit pattern matching, overlooked or underestimated by others”, Podhar said.