Modulor Capital, a micro venture capital fund that aims to invest in technology startups, has made its debut bet, a top executive told VCCircle.
The firm has led a $200,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) seed round of funding in the industrial internet of things (IoT) company DesignX, general partner Bhavish Sood said.
Sood said Modulor Capital is investing in DesignX through ThinkNext LLC, which is one of its three investment vehicles. The firm has a total corpus of Rs 20 crore that it had raised last year, he added.
He declined to disclose the firm’s Limited Partners, or investors, citing confidentiality reasons.
Sood also didn't specify the exact amount that Modulor invested in DesignX and who the other investors were.
However, he said the fund will focus on making investments in North America and India in startups at the seed and pre-Series A stage. Its typical ticket size will be $100,000 to $150,000 but may be smaller in India, starting at $50,000.
The firm says it has offices in Seattle, New Delhi and Chandigarh. Besides Sood, the other members of its investment team are Vikram Chalana and Neeran Chhiber.
Sood was earlier part of BlueSky Capital Management, which is the parent of Exponential Innovation Fund-I, an alternative investment fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. BlueSky’s portfolio includes hostel chain Backpacker and health-tech startup Medimetry.
DesignX, which is operated by NRV DesignX Pvt Ltd, was founded in 2015. The Noida-based company is building cloud-based software and IoT products specifically for the manufacturing sector. It specialises in bridging manufacturing companies to Industry 4.0, an industry trend towards automation and data exchange.
DesignX CEO Rajat Srivastav said in a statement Modulor Capital's investment was a validation of its capabilities and strategy. Nishant Srivastav, chief operating officer at DesignX, said the company will use the funds to build a comprehensive IIoT software portfolio.
