Seven years ago, Accel Partners entered India by merging with Indian VC Erasmic Venture Fund. Back then, Erasmic counted fashion ecommerce portal Myntra, (now acquired by Flipkart) in its portfolio.
Now, former Erasmic executive Venk Krishnan is floating a new early stage fund called Nu Ventures, along with Subbarao Telidevara, founder and managing partner of Lotus Pool Capital. “We have a successful entrepreneur and a seasoned venture capitalist in the team. So we have the ability to back founders with all that is required,” says Krishnan. His startup GovXcel, an e-government software provider (eGSP), was acquired in 2003 by Mitchell Humphrey. Prior to that, he held senior technical and managerial roles in companies like JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Wipro.
The duo have set aside US$2.5 million from their own savings for the fund to invest in a dozen startups in India. The fund is looking for opportunities in the software as a service (SaaS), consumer internet, health tech, and food tech verticals.
Like most early stage VCs, Nu claims to bet on founders. “Ideas can be morphed to suit the market. We want to be actively involved with the startup and help in executing strategies,” says Krishnan.
For instance, its portfolio company, alternative healthcare advisor Curejoy, was founded by serial entrepreneur Srini Sharma and Dikshant Dave, who previously ran interactive content firm Funstar. Another firm it invested in is web-based travel agent Nomadly, which is yet to launch. Nomadly organizes trips to Australia and New Zealand. Its founder had previously launched web designing and event management firm WhiteSpace35.
Nu is now creating a US$30 million fund. “We are in talks with a Boston-based VC firm to raise funds,” says Krishnan.
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