Sudhir Menon, Atul Hegde float a $50-mn start-up fund

Rainmaker Ventures targets to mentor 10-12 early stage start-ups in first year

Industrialist Sudhir Menon and Digital Marketer Atul Hegde have joined hands to launch a $50 million start-up fund. The two have formed Rainmaker Ventures, which will invest in start-ups in India and three more countries.

Rainmaker Ventures has set a target to mentor 10-12 early stage startups in its first year of operations.

Sudhir Menon is the Chairman & Managing Director of Dorf Ketal, a Rs 2000 crore company specialising in the development, commercialisation, marketing and application of specialty engineered chemistries for the refining and petrochemical industries.

Atul Hegde is a known face in the Indian digital media industry and was previously part of the Astro group of Malaysia funded - ToTHENEW ventures, running Ignitee Digital, a leading digital marketing firm.

Rainmaker Ventures with presence in India, USA, Brazil and Singapore launched with an early stage start-up fund of $50 million and will invest in tech-startups. The investment will not only support seed-capital, but also, the partners' collective expertise of growing successful businesses.

Hegde, co-founder, Rainmaker Ventures in statement said, "We strongly feel that early stage startups need full time mentoring as much as they need capital."

Most startup businesses have failed to move on to the next stage due to lack of real life business experience.

"Simply infusing capital is not the only requirement. That's where Rainmaker Ventures come in. We want to create a value-establishment - one that creates and nurtures real businesses in today's virtual world."

Sudhir Menon, Co-Founder, Rainmaker Ventures added, "Today, capital seems to be chasing anything that is in the garb of a tech startup. This scenario will get a reality check very soon. In the end, its real business that counts, both to the startup founders and the investors. Rainmaker ventures will focus on helping budding entrepreneurs to build a strong business on the ground. We believe that is the only way to ride & survive this start up wave."