IGI Logo

Venture capital firm GVFL on Wednesday announced the first close of its new Seed Stage fund, Prarambh Fund, raising Rs 100 crore to nurture 25-30 promising seed startups in the next one year. 

The fund will focus on tech startups in B2B SaaS, healthtech, agritech, climate-tech and deeptech, with investments in the range of Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 crore each. The targeted fund corpus is Rs 200 crore.

"Prarambh Fund will ensure the availability of a seamless funding pathway for startups from seed to growth stages. We believe that providing capital support to pre-revenue and early-stage startups will position GVFL as a comprehensive venture capital firm," Kamal Bansal, MD, GVFL, said in a statement.

GVFL (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Limited) has raised nine funds which have supported over 110 companies, and have divested from over 75 per cent of portfolio companies providing returns to their investors.

"GVFL has a strong track record of investing in early-stage companies and has committed investments of over Rs 150 crore in the last 18 months through its Emerging Enterprise Venture Fund, a Rs 500 crore fund," said Mihir Joshi, President, GVFL.

With Prarambh Fund, the VC firm said that it aims to work closely with incubators and global accelerators to make a substantial impact on the entrepreneurial landscape, driving innovation and growth for startups.