Unitus Seed Fund (now Unitus Ventures) is a venture fund based in Bangalore and Seattle that supports early-stage tech startups with India scale and global potential. It funds early-stage Indian technology startups, primarily in the healthcare, education and financial sectors.[1][2][3] As an impact investment fund, its focus is on startups that serve low and middle-income consumers.[4]
 | |
| Formerly | Unitus Seed Fund |
|---|---|
| Company type | Venture Capital Firm |
| Industry | Finance, Investment |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | India |
Key people | Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Surya Manta |
| AUM | USD 50 million |
| Website | unitus |
History
editUnitus Seed Fund (now Unitus Ventures) was started in 2012 by Unitus Group, a financial services group founded in 2000 with the goal of making money while reducing global poverty.[5][6] In the summer of 2012, Unitus Seed Fund spun out of Unitus Group as a separate venture investment management company and fund in order to scale-up investing operations.[citation needed] [7] Its first fund was US$23 million and in 2016 it started raising a second fund with a target of US$50 million.[6][8] Its early investors included Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.[7][4]
References
edit- ^ "You can think about investing in India as you would in the Valley, not so in China". The Times of India. 15 May 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ "Company Overview of Unitus Labs". Businessweek. 4 February 2013. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
- ^ Raghavan, Anita (11 April 2016). "For Indian Start-Ups, Tenacity Beats High Tech". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ a b Constine, Josh (3 January 2013). "Unitus Seed Fund Raises $8M From Khosla, 500 Startups To Back Ventures That Fight Poverty In India". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
- ^ "Unitus Group". Unitus. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ a b "Seeding Startups at the Base of India's Pyramid". Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ a b Gensler, Lauren. "Inside The Bill Gates-Backed Accelerator That's Training The Next Generation Of Venture Capitalists". Forbes. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ "Unitus launches second fund of $50 million, to fund 50 startups | Gadgets Now". The Times of India. 26 April 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.