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Rainmaker Ventures, founded by Sudhir Menon and Atul Hegde, on Friday announced the closure of its first venture capital (VC) early stage fund. “We want to fund companies before their first institutional round. All companies we invest in should have a mobile play,” said Hegde.
The co-founder of Rainmaker was previously of To The New Ventures, a leading digital marketing firm funded by Astro group of Malaysia.
The VC fund is planning to finance companies in the region of $150,000 to $1 million. “We plan to invest in 10 companies in the first year. The ticket size will evolve as time goes on,” added Hegde. He said the company would announce its first investment before the end of 2015 and another by February.
“We don’t plan to have a short-term view on the investments and will try to realise our investments in two-three years,” he said. The 41-year-old refused to rule out segments in particular. While big-ticket investments in new food-tech start-ups have come to a virtual halt, with the exception of Faasos, Hegde insisted Rainmaker would stay objective.
“We are sector-agnostic. If any good idea comes up, we will be more than happy to put money in it,” he said.
The company will adopt an angel investor-style model of appointing mentors to the company, who will be more hands on. “Usually, investors sit on the board, our mentors will be involved in key decision making in the company,” he said. Hegde said the company would hire five to six mentors soon.
Hegde and Menon have raised the money from their personal savings. While Hegde has experience in digital marketing, Menon is the chairman and managing director of Dorf Ketal, a chemical manufacturing and supply company specialising in opportunity crude oil.
