Early-stage backer 100X.VC has on Tuesday announced the appointment of Utpal Doshi as partner to oversee the investment firm’s corporate venture capital practices.
Doshi, with over two decades of experience as a tax and finance professional, will be advising on strategic expansion and exploration of new markets at the core of CVC practice.
Doshi has also been an active angel investor and been associated with early-stage investment firms such as LetsVenture, Inflection Point Ventures and CIO Angel Network.
With Doshi’s inclusion, 100X plans to unlock strategic, financial and technological ROI (return on investment) through access to credible deal flow with the long-term objectives of the corporates.
Over the years, corporate venture capital companies have become a major source of funding for startups. Companies such as Reliance, Tata, Aditya Birla and Mahindra are strategically investing in firms that are building allied technologies or working in adjacent sectors to create an ecosystem of related services.
“Today corporate venture is providing enterprises a new and more robust mechanism to stay ahead of the curve. I am excited to help corporates discover credible deal flow where 100X.VC dominates,” said Doshi.
100X.VC was founded by Sanjay Mehta, Ninad Karpe, former CEO of Aptech India; Shashank Randev, founder of VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform by VCCircle; Vatsal Kanakiya, an engineer who worked as an investor at various funds before becoming CTO at 100X and Yagnesh Sanghrajka, chief financial officer at the company.
Last week, the early-stage fund told VCCircle in an exclusive interaction that it is eyeing to double down on its investments in the current market scenario by increasing its average ticket size to Rs 1.25 crore from Rs 25 lakhs and aims to back up to 100 startups every year.
The firm used to write a Rs 25 lakh cheque for 7% equity. It now invests up to Rs 1.25 crore for a 15% stake in the startups. Since its launch in 2019, 100X.VC has closed 80 investments.