Orios Venture looks to invest in startups solving small towns' problems

The VC fund which typically invests around $1 million in each venture, has so far has invested in 25 companies including Zostel

Looking to address needs of the next wave of customers who will be coming from tier-II and tier-III cities, early-stage venture capital fund Orios Venture Partners is looking at retail, education, healthcare and lending as its prime focus areas. The Mumbai-based company said it is in the process of investing in at least three startups working in these areas after evaluating a pool of 17 companies.

The VC fund which typically invests around $1 million in each venture, has so far has invested in 25 companies, including backpackers' hostel start-up Zostel, online lingerie brand PrettySecrets and medicine ordering website PharmEasy.

“The next wave of urban consumers, hailing from tier II and III cities, have their unique problems. They do not need a taxi-hailing app to commute from one place to another or get grocery delivered at their doorstep. They want financial services, quality education, healthcare and vernacular content on the go,” said Anup Jain, Managing Partner at Orios Venture Partners.

Targeting the next 300 million customers who would be coming online from cities such as Nagpur, Selam, and Agra, the venture capital firm will be focusing on start-ups which are solving such problems by their unique models, he said.

Of the 17 start-ups that have been shortlisted from a group of 400 entries, three would be declared winners at a start-up selection event on Friday, who would be eligible for the funding. The investment would be made from the second fund that was raised by the company two years ago. Of all the investments from the first fund, Orios has exited the cloud data integration platform ZapStitch and employee productivity improvement solutions platform Sapience Analytics.