Unitus Seed Fund
 | |
| Venture capital firm | |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founders |
Will Poole (Founding Partner) Dave Richards (Founding Partner) |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
Area served | Indian states |
| AUM | USD 50 million |
| Website | http://usf.vc |
Unitus Seed Fund is a venture fund investing in startups in India.[1][2][3] It’s investment focus areas are healthcare, education, consumer services and financial technology.
Based in Bangalore and Seattle (Washington, USA), Unitus Seed Fund was founded in 2012 to help startups prepare for growth via seed funding, strategic and operating support, providing critical connections and securing growth capital. It first fund was USD 23 million and in 2016 it started raising a second fund with a target of USD 50 million.[4][5]
History
Unitus Seed Fund was started in 2011 by Unitus Group, a financial services group founded in 2000 with the goal of making money while reducing global poverty.[6][7] In the summer of 2012, Unitus Seed Fund spun out of Unitus Group as a separate venture investment management company and fund in order to scale-up investing operations.
Portfolio
Since 2012, Unitus Seed Fund has invested in 21 Indian startups across education, healthcare, financial technology and consumer services –
Education
- Hippocampus Learning Centres[8] - Affordable quality kindergarten centres and tutoring for rural India
- Cuemath[9] - Disrupting the K8 tuitions market with micro-franchised learning programs
- Curiositi[10] - Science activity kits for students from Grades 3-10 to make learning more effective
- LabInApp[11] - Mobile apps that create a 3D virtual lab for science experiments for school kids
- iSTAR[12] - Training and employability services for undergraduate college students
Healthcare
- UE LifeSciences Inc.[13] - Affordable breast cancer screening services to enable early disease detection for all
- AddressHealth[14] - Comprehensive paediatric care network through school outreach and primary clinics
- Welcare Health Systems[15] - Preventing blindness through low cost tele-ophthalmology services
- Smile Merchants[16] - Affordable dental care for Tier 2 and 3 towns in urban, semi-urban and rural India
Financial Technology
- Milaap[17] - Online platform for social-focused crowdfunding and micro-lending
Consumer Services
- BetterPlace Safety Solutions[18] - Technology driven “Safety As a Service” provider
- Blowhorn[19] - Uber model for intra-city mini-truck deliveries
- OneClickWash[20] - Organized end-to-end home laundry service
- DriveU[21] - Mobile-first, on-demand personal driver service
- Urban Tailor[22] - Organized tailoring services for women’s garments
- Jack On Block (Exited) - Home and small business facility services
- mGaadi (Exited) - SaaS service provider for fleet operators
Agriculture
- VillFarm Agrisolutions[23] - Sustainable agri-products company
Retails and E-commerce
- Caravan Craft[24] - Handcrafted global woman’s fashion and home décor with luxury quality and affordable prices
- GoCoop[25] - Leading online marketplace for co-operatives and community-based enterprises
- Jiffstore (Exited) - M-Commerce solution for small shops
References
- ↑ "'You can think about investing in India as you would in the Valley, not so in China' | Gadgets Now". Gadget Now. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Company Overview of Unitus Labs". Businessweek. Feb 4, 2013. Retrieved Feb 5, 2013.
- ↑ Raghavan, Anita (2016-04-11). "For Indian Start-Ups, Tenacity Beats High Tech". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Seeding Startups at the Base of India's Pyramid". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus launches second fund of $50 million, to fund 50 startups | Gadgets Now". Gadget Now. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus Group". Unitus. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Seeding Startups at the Base of India's Pyramid". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Hippocampus, a children's library, blossoms into a chain of pre-school learning centres in rural India - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus Seed Fund invests in Curiositi & Cue Learn - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ Ambre, Ashna (2014-12-16). "Curiositi Learning raises a seed round from Unitus Seed Fund". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ Ambre, Ashna (2015-06-15). "iStar raises funds from Unitus Seed Fund for skill development". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ admin. "Health technology developer UE LifeSciences raises Rs 19.5 crore". Health Technology. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus Seed Fund investing in Bangalore-based paediatric care chain AddressHealth". 2014-06-19. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus Seed Fund invests in affordable eye screening startup, Welcare Health Systems - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus Seed Fund invests undisclosed amount in Smile Merchants - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ Nair-Ghaswalla, Amrita (2013-08-25). "Milaap Social Ventures raises $1.1-million funding". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ Kanth, K. Rajani (2016-02-16). "Unitus Seed Fund finds a 'Betterplace' to invest". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Unitus Seed Fund leads funding round in Blowhorn - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ www.ETtech.com. "Unitus Seed Fund invests in OneClickWash | ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ Chakraborty, Sayan (2016-02-29). "DriveU raises $1 million from Unitus Seed Fund, Silicon Valley angel investors". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ Bureau, Our (2016-07-13). "Urban Tailor raises funds from Unitus Seed Fund and retail industry veteran". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ K, Nidheesh M (2015-09-22). "VillFarm Agrisolutions raises funds from Unitus Seed Fund". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "Caravan Craft raises Rs 8.5 crore from Unitus Seed Fund - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
- ↑ "GoCoop raises funds from IAN, Unitus Seed Fund- Business News". www.businesstoday.in. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
External links
- Unitus Group
- Sorenson Impact Foundation
- Crystal Springs Foundation
- Dr. Ranjan Pai, CEO and MD of Manipal Education and Medical Group
- Hemendra Kothari (Non-Executive Chairman of DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Limited)
- Diego Piacentini (Former Senior Vice President, International Consumer Business, Amazon.com)
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