Early stage investment firm India Quotient closing maiden fund at $6M; will invest in 5 startups in 6 months

Mumbai-based early stage investment firm India Quotient is in the final stages of closing its maiden fund at $6 million (around over Rs 30 crore). Last year, it had got commitment for around Rs 20 crore as part of the first close of the fund and was said to be eyeing a final close at Rs 25 crore.

Talking to Techcircle.in, Madhukar Sinha, partner, India Quotient, said the remaining capital has been raised from HNIs in India and abroad along with a few institutional investors.

India Quotient was formed in June last year by Sinha (senior investment manager at Aavishkaar) and former Seedfund partner Anand Lunia. It had received funding commitment from entrepreneurs such as Vishal Mehta of Infibeam, Kashyap Dalal of Inkfruit and Mohit Dubey, the founder of Carwale. The fund invests in startups at a very early stage, sometimes even before they start generating revenues. It looks to put in Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore as initial capital.

Sinha said so far the fund has invested in 11 companies and is looking to deploy this capital fully by investing in five more companies in the next six months. "Our aim is to fully deploy the capital before we start looking to raise the next fund sometime next year," he added.

The startups that have raised money from India Quotient include IIMJobs, a job portal for business graduates; personalised gifting startup Engrave; shopping network RedQuanta, at-home beauty and personal care services firm Belita; DogSpot.in, a one-stop online shop for all dog-related stuff; and Velvette, a subscription-based ecommerce platform.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)