Kriscore Capital, a new venture capital firm focused on early-stage Indian tech start-ups, has announced the first closure of its debut Rs 100 crore fund, with a provision for an additional Rs 100 crore greenshoe. For the first close, the firm has commitments of Rs 50 crore from a group of family offices and high-net-worth individuals.
It further plans to partner with 16-18 breakout companies that are solving large-scale problems using technology. The sector-agnostic fund will invest into tech-driven businesses at the pre-seed and seed stages with a bias for exceptional founders building across key trends in India.
These include the digital consumer wave, China+1 supply chain opportunities, global export of India’s premium market, Gen AI powered services, and net zero 2070 goals. To begin, Kriscore has made its first investment into a stealth-mode start-up.
“India’s startup ecosystem is exploding, and Indian founders are building generational global businesses. Apart from technical prowess and team strength, enduring entrepreneurship needs an ecosystem of support - including financial expertise, capital firepower, compliance mentorship, and strategic global connectivity to build exceptional businesses,” said Nilesh Balakrishnan, general partner at Kriscore Capital.
Besides capital, Kriscore provides time, expertise, and passion to help founders build something groundbreaking, he added.
With over decades of experience across early-stage VC, the VC also ensures to provide value-added services that focus on critical but non-operational aspects of the founder journey that are underserved, but essential to de-risking early-stage investments.
The fund’s advisory board includes D Sundaram - Lead Independent Director of Infosys, Shyam Srinivasan – former MD & CEO of Federal Bank, and Manish Khetarpal - Founding Partner of WaterBridge Ventures.
In March, US-based Bessemer Venture Partners also closed its second India-dedicated early-stage start-ups fund with a corpus of $350 million. The fund is focused on start-ups across various sectors, including artificial intelligence (AI), SaaS (software-as-a-service), fintech, digital health, direct-to-consumer brands, and cybersecurity.
The firm’s first dedicated India fund backed notable start-ups including Boldfit, MoveInSync, Pepper Content, Shopdeck, Vetic, and Zopper, while its broader portfolio includes category leaders like BigBasket, Livspace, Perfios, Swiggy, and Urban Company. The firm has also seen nine IPOs within its India portfolio.
