Ahmedabad-based venture capital firm GVFL Ltd said Wednesday it has made the first close of its new investment vehicle, the Prarambh Fund, which will invest in seed-stage startups in India.
GVFL achieved the milestone, which allows it to start deploying the capital, after raising Rs 100 crore for the fund. The fund has a target corpus of Rs 200 crore. It is aiming to deploy the funds in 25-30 companies this year.
The Prarambh Fund will focus on investing in startups across verticals such as B2B software-as-a-service, healthtech, agritech, climatetech, and deeptech. Its investment will range between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore each.
“The Prarambh Fund will aim to foster innovation across diverse sectors and create an ecosystem of funding and mentorship for young entrepreneurs. It will ensure the availability of a seamless funding pathway for startups from seed to growth stages,” said Kamal Bansal, managing director, GVFL.
GVFL, formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd, is an independent, board-managed venture finance company. To date, it has raised nine funds and has invested in more than 110 companies. It claims to have divested from over 75% of portfolio companies with high returns for investors.
The firm also operates a co-investment platform named a4X.fund, which supports seed-stage companies via acceleration services and partnerships with mentors, and industry experts to create their growth roadmap. With the Prarambh Fund, GVFL aims to work more closely with incubators and global accelerators.
“GVFL has a strong track record of investing in early-stage companies and has committed investments of over Rs 150 crore in the last 18 months through its Emerging Enterprise Venture Fund, a Rs 500 crore fund,” said Mihir Joshi, president, GVFL.
Some of GVFL’s portfolio companies include Zero Cow Factory, GamerJi, Zoivane Pets, Saarthi Pedagogy, Videosdk, VnF, All That Dips, EroNkan, EcoTrail, and Frylo, among others.
