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HeadStart Ventures On Road To Create Rs 25Cr Angel Fund

By TEAM VCC

  • 25 Jun 2010

, a limited liability partnership firm founded by three technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, is creating a pure-play angel fund targeting a size of Rs 25 crore, to be raised from high networth individuals.

The firm has approached about 60-70 HNIs, predominantly from Bangalore, with an understanding and affinity towards technology investing, for its fund-raising exercise. It claims to have received active interest and some commitments from close to a dozen such individuals who will invest a minimum Rs 50 lakh to be a partner in the angel fund.

Speaking to VCCircle, one of the founding partners of Headstart Ventures, Kallol Borah, says, “Headstart Ventures seeks to address the gaps in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem such as lack of seed stage funding and market access, long-drawn fund-raising process and effective mentoring.” 

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The fund realizes that the Rs 1-crore angel funding per company can offer a firm only a limited runway and it hopes that its industry collaborations would lead to acquisitions of these startups, which will form one of the key exit routes. It is already in dialogue with large technology  companies to understand gaps they seek to fill either in-house or through acquiring such innovations. Headstart Ventures will identify such startups who are addressing an existing or foreseeable market need. The fund targets sectors such as technology, communication, digital media and advertising and ICT-enabled healthcare and education solutions.

The other founding partners of Headstart Ventures include Suryanarayanan A, a serial entrepreneur having founded and exited three businesses – Medybiz, MediAssist and Lifeken. He is currently COO at the NS Raghvan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The third founding partner Jagannath Rao, who runs his own startup, was till recently with Motorola engaged in product development for global markets including venture initiatives. Borah has been a technology and entrepreneurial community organizer having co-founded both HeadStart Network Foundation and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Bangalore.

According to data from VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle, since the start of 2005, there have only been 79 angel deals with a disclosed deal size of $46 million. One of the most active angel investor groups in the last few months has been Mumbai Angels while Indian Angel Network is the other organised group.

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Most of these angel investor groups have focused on technology though there are micro-venture capital firms like Aavishkaar and Acumen who invest $1 million or lower in deals in social investing space. Of late, some incubators like Morpheus Venture Partners and Amity Innovation Incubator have also been active in helping incubatees raise funding.

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