First close of Grayscale Ventures’ $20 M fund; to support 20 Pre-seed startups

Ila Dhond28/02/2023

276 1 minute read

Grayscale Ventures, a Singapore-based company, closed the first $10 million of its $20 million micro-fund. The fund focuses on businesses with an AI, vertical SaaS, and DevInfra (development infrastructure) focus.

In 15-20 pre-seed firms over a four-year period, the micro-fund will invest between $200K and $1M. By the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, it will have reached its conclusion.

The fund will aim for roughly 10% ownership in the businesses it invests in, and it prefers to lead or co-lead fundraising rounds alongside other specialized funds.

“We come from Dev and Product backgrounds, so we tend to understand what technical founders are building better than most generalist investors. Our portfolio founders find value in working with us as we support them in figuring out their product-market-fit and opening up market access in the US and APAC,” Grayscale Ventures said in a statement.

Nikhil Kapur and Siddharth Verma formed Grayscale Ventures, which includes limited partners (LPs) from Japan, SEA, the US, and India. These LPs are the owners and founders of a number of companies, including Slack, Zendesk, Hasura, GlobalWay, Nexus, STRIVE, Apollo Munich, and UOB.

Prior to this, the founders supported multiple pre-seed investment rounds in India while employed at STRIVE. These Indian companies include Hasura, Classplus, 100ms, Reshamandi, and Testsigma, among others.

The two founders oversaw secondary sales and merger and acquisition (M&A) prospects in STRIVE’s portfolio firms, including Hasura, SuperK, and PopXO.

Grayscale has so far invested in two SaaS startups: Olvy and Localwell, which make billing software for pharmacies.

The fund launch comes as Indian businesses struggle with low financial commitments. On the other hand, financial institutions have developed VC and PE funds to provide financial support to the startup community.

VC company PeerCapital closed the first $37.5 million tranche of its inaugural fund this month.

As part of its ninth cohort, the Sanjay Mehta-led fund invested INR 1.25 Cr in 25 firms in January, while Dallas Venture Capital announced the first close of a 350 Cr fund.