A new US $100 million seed fund for early-stage technology companies has been announced by an Indian startup accelerator Axilor Ventures. The second round under its Axilor Technology will include the new investment vehicle four times the size of the first and will support companies in the enterprise SaaS, B2B commerce, Agritech, consumer tech, fintech, and health tech industries.
The ATF-II is awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and expects to close by September-end.
According to Axilor, the new fund will also have a longer tenure and a higher follow-on reserve than the first one. The startup was first launched in 2018, the first Axilor Technology Fund invested in 54 startups and saw a follow-on rate of over 75%. Of this group, 21 startups have closed series A or later rounds.
Co-founder and CEO of Axilor Ventures Ganapathy Venugopal said, “With our first fund, we have demonstrated our deep engagement model and a programmatic approach that predictably delivers better outcomes for startups,” he further added that the team hopes to bring the same idea to the next fund.
The announcement follows an overall decline in VC funding in Indian startups in the second quarter of the year amid an anticipated economic downturn.
Axilor Fund is an eight-year-old fund founded by former Infosys NS 1.06% cofounders Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal and other senior technologists and had deployed 90% of its first funding worth Rs 200 Crore by backing almost 54 companies.
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