GHV partners with Forbes Japan editor-in-chief to launch $52 mn VC fund for Indian startups

Gurgaon-based startup accelerator GreenHouse Ventures (GHV) has partnered with Makoto Takano, editor-in-chief of Forbes Japan and former president of PIMCO Japan Ltd, to launch a Rs 350 crore (around $52 million) fund for early stage Indian startups.

GHV's earlier partner, World Innovation Labs (WiL), a Japan and Silicon Valley-based VC fund, is also participating in the new fund. They trio plans to start investing in the next four-five months and will be putting in money in the Series A round.

"Our focus will be around health tech, fintech, adtech and B2B marketplaces and will be investing anywhere between $2million and $5 million (Rs17-33 crore) in each startup," Vikram Upadhyaya, chief mentor and evangelist at GHV Accelerator, told Techcircle.

Takano, who has now joined the board of GHV Accelerator, is also founder of MT Partners K, which assists 14 companies including atomixmedia where Takano serves as CEO. He is also managing director of Genuine Startups Ltd, which manages a VC fund called Genuine Fund.

"India is a bullish economy and I am excited to be a part of many success stories that we intend to create from India over time," Takano said in a press statement.

Upadhyaya, a venture capitalist, has invested in startups such as Druva, Stayzilla, Loginext and CollegeSearch.  Earlier this month, GHV invested in Applop Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider that enables users to make their own mobile app.

WiL is a VC fund based out of Japan and Silicon Valley with a $400 million corpus and typically invests $5-30 million in early as well as growth-stage technology and internet startups through multiple rounds of investments and will continue to follow the same investment pattern for the GHV startups. WiL's portfolios include DoctorOnDemand, HMV, Mercari, Gumi, Raksul and  GiGSky.

"India today looks like what China was 10 years back and growth here will be much stronger in the next few years. We would like to fund a couple of companies from GHV if there is a strong connection to Silicon Valley or Japan," said Gen Isayama, co-founder and CEO, WiL.

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