AngelPrime to raise up to $15 mn in second half of this year

Seed-stage fund AngelPrime is looking at raising about USD 15 million (over Rs 90 crore) this year to invest in firms working on mobile, cloud and IoT products and services.
The Bangalore-based company had invested in and mentored mobile marketing and analytics start up ZipDial, which was bought by micro blogging site Twitter earlier this month for a reported USD 30-40 million.
"We had a good stint mentoring start ups and helping them with early stage funds. Our's is a USD 10 million fund and we have invested in 7 start ups so far. Angel Prime will go out for fresh funding in the later half this year and expect to raise up to USD 15 million," AngelPrime Managing Partner Sanjay Swamy told PTI.

AngelPrime provides early stage funding to entrepreneurs. It focuses on startups that not only need seed capital, but also mentoring them to reach a stage where they are ready for a large venture investment, he added.
Explaining the rationale behind setting up AngelPrime, its Managing Partner Shripati Acharya said: "I, Swamy and Bala (Managing Partner Bala Parthasarathy) were entrepreneurs and we understand the problems they face when working on ideas."
The motivation behind the seed stage fund is to help entrepreneurs with early stage investment and expertise to develop their ideas into a product or service, he added.

Parthasarathy said: "So far we have invested in seven start ups, of which 5 have been announced and the remaining 2 will be announced shortly. We are looking at entrepreneurs working on ideas in the sphere of mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, etc."

Its portfolio firms include ZipDial, mobile PoS firm Ezetap, online marketplace for talent discovery and recruitment HackerEarth, online marketplace for asset sellers and buyers SmartOwner and local web marketing solutions startup Synup.
"We believe in getting deeply involved with the companies we invest in. We give our time, money and energy to the best in the business and do not invest in more than 3-4 companies in a year," Parthasarathy said.