Java Capital, a SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) with a focus on seed-stage startups, has announced the launch of its first fund with a corpus of Rs 75 crore and a greenshoe option of Rs 25 crore. The Fund has achieved its initial close of Rs 30 crore and anticipates its final close to occur within the next six months, said a statement.
The newly launched fund has already begun investing in pre-seed to pre-series A startups and intends to build a portfolio of 15 to 20 startups with an average initial investment of Rs 2 crore. The fund will set aside fifty percent for follow-on investments in its most successful portfolio companies.
Career venture capitalists Bhargavi V, Vinod Shankar, and Karteek Pulapaka founded Java Capital in 2020. The company said that the Fund will lead and participate in investments in startups seeking pre-seed to pre-series funding. This fund includes investments in deep-tech, SAAS, enterprise tech, fintech, and climate & sustainability. Java has already invested in four companies from this fund.
Java Capital has previously invested in 23 startups, including Agnikul, KukuFM, BharatX, Better Opinions, Yellow Metal, The Eplane Company, Kindlife, and Legistify, among others. Java has led rounds in forty percent of these businesses. More than fifty percent of the portfolio received additional funding in up-rounds. After Java’s investments, four of these companies were accepted into the Y-Combinator accelerator programme. Currently, the total value of Java’s portfolio is $385 million.
Vinod Shankar, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital says, “We are possibly one of the only funds with strong diversity with three full time partners and are led by deep conviction in the companies we invest in. We are not afraid to lead rounds ourselves at this stage, which is again led by our deep conviction and contrarian to most other funds in this market. All three of us have collectively spent over 25 plus years investing in start-ups, Karteek and myself worked at Kalaari Capital before starting Java Capital in 2020. We are willing to take outlier risks such as Agnikul – A company making India‘s first 3d printed semi-cryo rocket engines or EPlane – Electric flying taxis. We believe as a pre-seed/seed stage fund if we can’t take such bets, there is no point in calling ourselves a VC.”
Bhargavi, who will be based in Silicon Valley, is establishing a robust network to facilitate Java Capital’s portfolio’s market access in the United States. The company said that this provides an advantage for Java Capital’s portfolio to access capital on the North American market.
Bhargavi V, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital says, “We are super excited to announce the launch of our fund and we are strong believers in long term growth story for India, we work with our ecosystem and partners in the true spirit of long term games with long term people leads to significant outcomes for the society at large. We are in the venture space for the next couple of decades and would like to grow Java Capital as the first port of call for founders looking to start companies.”
Karteek Pulapaka, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital says, “India is in the midst of a once in a century transformation and this will be underscored by cutting-edge startups. At Java, we have a strong record of backing and nurturing visionary founders developing disruptive business models and technology. We are guided by our values of being transparent with all stakeholders, building long-term and lasting relationships, giving founder friendly terms and promoting win-win outcomes. Our vision is to meaningfully contribute to the Indian startup ecosystem and be a part of this historic transformation.”
