Early stage venture capital firm Venture Highway has raised $78.6 million for its second fund focused on technology seed investments in India. A large part of the fresh raise will be used for new investments in approximately thirty early stage companies over the life of this fund. Founded in 2015, Venture Highway have funded startups like Meesho, Sharechat, Moglix, O4S, Wishfin and WMall.
The Fund was started by Samir Sood and Neeraj Arora who are friends from Google. Having worked with global firms such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, Samir’s professional journey spans roles in building a family business in India, making early-stage technology investments and leading mergers and acquisitions globally and in Asia. Neeraj Arora, the former Global Business Head at WhatsApp is an advisor and the founding anchor Limited Partner based in Silicon Valley.
The Fund is a founder-focused seed fund and partners with the next generation of Indian technology entrepreneurs by providing guidance and early rounds of institutional capital. Backed by investors from Silicon Valley, the average cheque size for this Fund is expected to be a million dollars. Venture Highway seeks to partner with capital efficient technology businesses and add value through their global and local networks, said the company.
On the new fund, Samir Sood, Founder, Venture Highway LLP, an advisor entity, said, “We are extremely passionate about helping advise technology entrepreneurs build their businesses with our local and global networks. Our goal is to give back to our country’s early-stage ecosystem and we continue to be extremely excited about the quality of the current generation of entrepreneurs building large businesses out of India.”
Venture Highway has now become an institution to help drive the early stage technology ecosystem in India. The first fund backed great founders in category leaders such as Meesho and Sharechat, which are among the top 30 soonicorns in India. Some of its other early investments have been in renowned startups such as Moglix, OkCredit, Tracxn, Cars24 and Wishfin.
