Silverneedle Ventures launches Rs 100 cr fund; to invest in 30 startups

Venture capital firm Silverneedle Ventures on Friday said it has launched a Rs 100-crore fund and plans to invest in 30 startups in the next 18 months.

The fund was founded by Ajay Jain and Deepesh Agarwal, who were also the founders of Xseed Partners, and it was approved by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in August.

"We will invest in 30 startups in the next 18 months and will support them till we get exits -- generally in 3-5 years for a healthy exit. The fund will aim for investing in the range of Rs 1 to Rs 6 crore per deal," Silverneedle Ventures, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Ajay Jain said in a statement.

Silverneedle Ventures (SNV) shared the first investment of an undisclosed amount of funding in a creator monetisation platform Knorish.

The funding round was backed by marquee investors such as Andrew Holland, Bharat Serum Family Office, IPV, Mumbai Angels, and Jet Synthesys.

"Knorish aims to utilize the fund by expanding and growing its business to new markets while planning to onboard more creators and use the rest of the fund to enhance its tech ability. Currently, the startup has a team of 32 people in technology, sales, customer success, content designing, and marketing," the statement said.

SNV fund plans to mainly invest in B2B SaaS, deeptech, sustainability, and direct-to-consumer (D2C) and consumer internet focussed startups.

"After the success of Xseed Partners, we have set up Silverneedle Ventures with a very strong and diverse team, bringing expertise in core areas of the Startup business model.

"With our mentor-driven model approach, we will assign segment-specific experts across the globe, for the portfolio, so that each startup is taken on a growth trajectory," Jain said.