Unitus Seed Fund

Unitus Seed Fund is an investment fund which provides seed funding to social enterprise in India.[1] Based in Bangalore and Seattle, Washington [2][3] and established in 2012, the program invests in Indian startups that have the potential for large-scale impact on poverty and significantly help those living under $2 a day. It invests in companies which gives significant benefits to the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) population, by providing products and services such as early childhood education, preventive health care, affordable necessities and income-generating opportunities. USF provides a maximum initial investment size of $100,000 and invests in a wide range of business sectors including livelihoods, education, agriculture, healthcare, ecosystem, innovative technologies, mobile, rural distribution etc.

History

Unitus Seed Fund is part of the Unitus family and was initially incubated by Unitus Labs starting in late 2011. USF announced its first investments in India in February 2012 in three ventures: Milaap Social Ventures, Bodhicrew Services and Hippocampus Learning Centres. In April 2012, USF announced an investment in Villgro Innovation Marketing .

In July 2012, USF announced that it was graduating from the Unitus Labs incubation program and forming a new investment management company to scale-up investing. The new investment management company is being run by three partners: Dave Richards, Will Poole: and Srikrishna Ramamoorthy.

In September 2012, a new investment management company, Unitus Seed Partners LLC (USP) was set up with offices in Seattle and Bangalore to manage USF going forward.

In January 2013, Unitus Seed Fund (USF) secured over $8 million in investment commitments for its seed-stage venture capital fund focused on accelerating “BoP startups”. Since then USF has invested in skills training company iSTAR, a facility management company Jack on Block and Caravan Craft. 2013 also saw the addition of some corporate heavyweights like Ravi Venkatesan (Chairman of Microsoft India) and Atul Bindal Managing (Director Asia of Khosla Ventures and former President of Airtel Mobile) to its Investment Advisory Committee. In Dec 2013 Unitus Seed Fund India (USFI), a new India-based seed-stage investment fund, received approval from India’s securities regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to start investment activities. In Feb 2014 Unitus Seed Fund was named India’s most active seed stage impact investor. It is also this year that USF marked its foray into the healthcare sector with investments in healthcare marketplace Medypal and eye screening startup Welcare.

U.S. investors include Mike Murray (co-founder of microfinance pioneer Unitus Labs ), Jeff Clark, Vinod Khosla (founder, Khosla Ventures and Khosla Impact), 500 Startups, and Bob Gay (formerly of Huntsman-Gay and Bain Capital). A year after its launch it had raised $8 million.[4]

In September 2014, Unitus Seed Fund announced its new India fund's growth to USD $20 million with new foundation investors and Individual investors. New foundations include Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Deshpande Foundation, Lemelson Foundation, Sorenson Impact Foundation, and Wadhwani Foundation

In November 2014, Unitus Seed Fund announced its presence in 7 additional India metros, Chennai, Mumbai, Lucknow, Jaipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bhubaneswar to expand its entrepreneur outreach.[5]

November 2014, Unitus Seed Fund announced prominent new investors in their fund] including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.[6]

Criterion for investment

Unitus Seed Fund’s general criteria for investment are :

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Company Overview of Unitus Labs". Businessweek. Feb 4, 2013. Retrieved Feb 5, 2013.
  2. ↑ About us udf.vc.
  3. ↑ Unitus Seed Fund Unitus Labs
  4. ↑ "Unitus Seed Fund Raises $8M From Khosla, 500 Startups To Back Ventures That Fight Poverty In India". TechCrunch. January 3, 2013. Retrieved Feb 5, 2013.
  5. ↑ http://usf.vc/updates/unitus-seed-fund-now-in-7-additional-cities-in-india/
  6. ↑ http://usf.vc/updates/unitus-seed-fund-adds-more-prominent-investors/

External links

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