Unicorn India Ventures eyes a new chapter, aims to be a cross-border fund

Venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures (UIV) is working towards becoming a cross-border venture firm, Founder and Managing Partner Bhaskar Majumdar said.

 

Cross-border funds have their unique advantages: they allow funds to build strong connections in two countries and create a network that encompasses both regions.

 

In India, Nexus Venture Partners is the only venture capital (VC) that has this structure.

 

“Once we close the third fund, we will focus on setting up our operation in the US,” Majumdar said.

 

For Majumdar, this is part of the strategy of reinventing UIV.

 

“I can carry on doing the same thing or reinvent ourselves and look at something which takes UIV into a different league,” he said.

 

Other than the ability to attract limited partners to the fund, the other reason for UIV is to provide a networking platform for their portfolio firms aiming at international markets, particularly the US.

 

“We want to build a large ecosystem in terms of VCs, team. But most importantly, this will give us the ability to co-invest and bring newer players into the ecosystem. Today, after Series B, there are a handful of people who do the larger rounds of funding. We want to create an alternate source of capital,” Majumdar said.

 

He added that there are several options that can create co-investment opportunities.

 

“There are several family offices in the US who do not want to give money to a general partner directly, but they do not mind directly investing in the company. Second, there are several US firms who missed the India story and still want to invest. But then they are not the ones to set up an office and get a team to invest, as the market is already crowded, and then we can be their partner,” he said.

 

Recently, US-based General Catalyst, one of the largest VC players, acquired Venture Highway.

 

Meanwhile, UIV is halfway through raising its third fund of Rs 1,200 crore. 

 

The VC firm has made four investments through its third fund, with six more in the pipeline.

 

UIV’s first fund has returned 2.8x to investors, and Majumdar added that they will return 3-4x more to investors.

 

The fund focuses on deep tech sectors like space tech, semiconductors, agri-tech, and agri-traceability.

 

Majumdar shares that the fund has transitioned as the Indian startup ecosystem has matured.

 

“The first fund had companies that were focused on the India Stack, as that was the time for the India digitisation story. This was followed by the SaaS success story, and now, with the push on manufacturing, we are seeing huge interest in specialised startups. These are in the semiconductor space, health space, and agriculture,” he added.

 

UIV made almost 6x in a partial exit from Thiruvananthapuram-based Sascan Meditech.

 

It invested ~2 crore across two rounds in 2020 and 2021.