Angel network Zero To One Fund has received approval from markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to launch its Rs 300 crore category-1 alternative investment fund (AIF).
The New Delhi-based network - including 500 angels under its umbrella from India, Singapore, Dubai, US and UK - will invest in early-stage startups by participating in pre-seed to Series A funding rounds, with focus on edtech, healthtech, agritech, medtech and cleantech spaces.
Zero To One was launched by chartered accountant turned investment banker Praveen Kaushik and Rahul Massey in 2022.
"The idea behind founding Zero To One is not only to fund startups but create an ecosystem that can assist and support startups," said Kaushik, who is also the director of the angel network.
In the past few months, early-stage funding has witnessed an uptick globally, despite a slowdown in the overall dealmaking pace.
According to data from Venture Intelligence, the average ticket size for an early-stage deal in 2022 stood at $4 million, against $3.4 million in 2021.
These pre-seed to Series A investments are likely to grow in the coming months as several venture capital firms and angel networks have recently launched funds to back early-stage startups.
For instance, last month, Mumbai-based early-stage startup investment platform We Founder Circle launched two funds to back early-stage startups in India. The first fund, Invstt Trust, will be an angel fund, and has a target corpus of Rs 200 crore, with a green shoe option of up to Rs 200 crore. On the other hand, the second fund, We Founder Circle Global Angels Fund, will be a cross-border fund in Gift City, Gandhinagar, with a target corpus of $30 million and a green shoe option of $30 million.
Meanwhile, in October 2022, early-stage investing platform Indian Angel Network (IAN) launched its second fund, IAN Alpha Fund, with a fund corpus of Rs 1000 (about $120 million) crore, 2x size of its first fund of Rs 375 crore.
In the same month, sector-agnostic fund SphitiCap launched its maiden venture fund with an aim to raise a corpus of around $500 million, targeting enterprises focused on sustainability, growth and impact.
