Early-stage venture capital (VC) firm 247VC, founded by operator-investors Yagnesh Sanghrajka and Shashank Randev, has launched its first India-focussed fund with a base corpus of Rs 200 crore and a green shoe option of Rs 50 crore.
The fund, registered as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), will offer institutional seed cheques to startups across sectors such as consumption, enterprise tech, deep tech, and Industry 5.0, which includes advanced manufacturing, industrial and allied domains, managing partner Sanghrajka told ET in an interaction.
Early backers of the fund include Sachin Tagra, managing partner at JSW Ventures; Vivek Mathur, former partner at VC firm Elevation Capital; and Shailendra Majmundar, a generative AI and machine learning expert at Johns Hopkins University.
247VC plans to invest in around 30 startups over the next three years, with an average cheque size of about Rs 7 crore, including follow-on investments in top-performing portfolio companies. The firm is targeting the first close of the fund within the next four months.
“We will start with Rs 3-4 crore and then inch ourselves up in terms of maintaining our stake with the portfolio as we go along and put more money in future rounds. I think opportunity is pretty much everywhere. But having said that, there are some key themes that are emerging,” said Sanghrajka.
Before launching 247VC, Sanghrajka and Randev cofounded Mumbai-based early-stage VC firm 100X.VC, alongside Sanjay Mehta and Ninad Karpe. The duo exited 100X.VC in November 2024.
The fund’s launch comes amid a challenging environment for early-stage funding in India, as VC firms adopt a more cautious stance due to declining valuations and tepid investor sentiment. However, average cheque sizes at the seed and pre-Series A stages have risen, even as VCs grow more selective.
“I have seen a lot of funds that are straddling between pre-seed and seed investments. However, a lot of large funds are now coming to the seed stage. They are calling it backward integration, as they also want to come into seed. So, we feel we should be able to partner with some of them in the VC ecosystem,” said Sanghrajka. “This is giving us an opportunity to collaborate with certain larger VCs who want to also come in and join the round when we are cutting our first cheque.”
In their previous roles, Sanghrajka and Randev have backed startups, including Knight Fintech, EMO Energy, abCoffee, and Zeron, among others.
The fund, registered as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), will offer institutional seed cheques to startups across sectors such as consumption, enterprise tech, deep tech, and Industry 5.0, which includes advanced manufacturing, industrial and allied domains, managing partner Sanghrajka told ET in an interaction.
Early backers of the fund include Sachin Tagra, managing partner at JSW Ventures; Vivek Mathur, former partner at VC firm Elevation Capital; and Shailendra Majmundar, a generative AI and machine learning expert at Johns Hopkins University.
247VC plans to invest in around 30 startups over the next three years, with an average cheque size of about Rs 7 crore, including follow-on investments in top-performing portfolio companies. The firm is targeting the first close of the fund within the next four months.
“We will start with Rs 3-4 crore and then inch ourselves up in terms of maintaining our stake with the portfolio as we go along and put more money in future rounds. I think opportunity is pretty much everywhere. But having said that, there are some key themes that are emerging,” said Sanghrajka.
Before launching 247VC, Sanghrajka and Randev cofounded Mumbai-based early-stage VC firm 100X.VC, alongside Sanjay Mehta and Ninad Karpe. The duo exited 100X.VC in November 2024.
The fund’s launch comes amid a challenging environment for early-stage funding in India, as VC firms adopt a more cautious stance due to declining valuations and tepid investor sentiment. However, average cheque sizes at the seed and pre-Series A stages have risen, even as VCs grow more selective.
“I have seen a lot of funds that are straddling between pre-seed and seed investments. However, a lot of large funds are now coming to the seed stage. They are calling it backward integration, as they also want to come into seed. So, we feel we should be able to partner with some of them in the VC ecosystem,” said Sanghrajka. “This is giving us an opportunity to collaborate with certain larger VCs who want to also come in and join the round when we are cutting our first cheque.”
In their previous roles, Sanghrajka and Randev have backed startups, including Knight Fintech, EMO Energy, abCoffee, and Zeron, among others.
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