Bangalore-based startup incubator Morpheus Venture Partners (MVP) is considering raising Rs 1-2 crore ($200k-500k) venture capital fund. The company is planning to target high net worth individuals (HNI) to raise the proposed amount.
Speaking to VCCircle, Sameer Guglani, co-founder of MVP, said that “work on raising the fund is expected to begin in next three months, wherein we would be targeting an investment of Rs 25-30 lakhs ($50-60,000) from each investor.” Guglani had earlier co-founded Madhouse.in, an online DVD rental company, which was funded by Mumbai Angels. It was later sold to Seventymm.com.
MVP will invest Rs 5 lakh ($10,000) in each company under its portfolio, once the targeted fund is raised, added Guglani.
The company, as of now, runs a 4-6 months Business Acceleration Programme (BAP), during which it extends assistance, as a limited co-founder to start-up organizations under its portfolio in areas like product development and launch, team building, devising a revenue model, customer relations, and other nitty-gritty’s in exchange of 4% to 8% stake.
MVP recently announced the beginning of batch 3 of its BAP, which consists of ten new start-ups.
The batch 3 companies are very diverse in nature, as the business area varies from education domain, apparel, automotive, advertising and financial services. Companies under batch 3 portfolio are - Adscoot, Easy Square Feet, Interview Street, Naabo, Picsean, ReachTax, Retail Vector, RobotsAlive, Scopial and VeriCAR.
The number of companies under the MVP portfolio has increased to 20 in 2009 from four companies it had in its first batch, which commenced in January 2008.
Of the 20 companies under its portfolio, three firms, Instablogs, CommonFloor and Crederity have raised venture capitalist funding.
Indus Khaitan, a Silicon Valley technology evangelist and entrepreneur, has recently joined founders Sameer Guglani and Nandini Hiranniah as a partner at MVP.