Siddhartha Ahluwalia and Nansi Mishra, founders of the 100x Entrepreneur podcast, have floated a fund that aims to raise $25 million (about Rs 200 crore) to invest in early-stage startups.
The fund—called Neon—will invest in business-to-business software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups, helping them go beyond more than $10 million in annual revenue run rate within five years, the firm said in a statement. The Neon fund will also help its portfolio companies with go-to-market expertise.
“India has some incredible SaaS founders who shine bright even on the global stage,” said Ahluwalia.
“We look forward to being a part of their journeys and working with them on product development, marketing, sales, and talent acquisition. This arms them with the strategic and operational support necessary to scale rapidly and efficiently," he added.
Ahluwalia and Mishra started the 100x Entrepreneur podcast in 2018 interviewing founders and investors. It rebranded to ‘Neon’ this year.
The fund’s limited partners include prominent names like Blume Founders Fund, Sandeep Singhal of Nexus Venture Partners, and founders like Pallav Nadhani of Fusion Charts, Varun Shoor of Kayako, Paras Chopra of Wingify, Kiran Darisi, who previously worked Freshworks, and Kshitij Jain of Mobolt.
The new fund follows the firm’s 100x Entrepreneur $10-million fund, which was launched in 2020. Its portfolio includes companies like virtual summit platform Airmeet, influencer management platform Affable.ai, employee benefits platform Plum, and sales software provider ElevateHQ.
So far, it has made about 35 early-stage investments, according to its website.
