Java Capital Launches Rs 75 crore Seed Stage Fund

Java Capital, a seed stage focused SEBI registered Alternate Investment Fund (AIF), has launched its first fund with a corpus of Rs 75 crore, including a greenshoe option of Rs 25 crore.

According to the firm, The Fund has achieved its first close at Rs 30 crore and expects to do a final close in the next six months. The newly launched fund has already started investing in pre-seed to pre-series A startups and plans to build a portfolio of 15 – 20 startups with an average first cheque size of Rs 2 crore.

The firm said the fund would reserve 50% to make follow-on investments into top-performing portfolio companies.

Java Capital was founded in 2020 by career venture capitalists and startup ecosystem enablers Bhargavi V, Vinod Shankar, and Karteek Pulapaka. With over 25+ years of experience between the founders across pre-seed, seed, and early-stage investments, the managing partners came together to launch Java Capital.

The fund will participate and lead investments in startups looking to raise pre-seed to pre-series A funding across deep-tech, SAAS, enterprise tech, fintech and climate and sustainability verticals, out of which Java has already invested in 4 companies from this fund, it said.

Previously, Java Capital has invested in 23 startups, such as Agnikul, KukuFM, BharatX, Better Opinions, Yellow Metal, The Eplane Company, Kindlife, Legistify etc.

Java has led rounds in 40% of these companies. More than 50% of the portfolio raised follow-on funding in up-rounds. Four of these companies were selected for the Y-Combinator accelerator post-Java’s investments into them. As of now, the combined valuation of Java’s portfolio is $385 million.

“We are possibly one of the only funds with strong diversity with three full-time partners and are led by deep conviction in the companies we invest in. We are not afraid to lead rounds ourselves at this stage, which is again led by our deep conviction and contrarian to most other funds in this market," said Vinod Shankar, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital.

"All three of us have collectively spent over 25 plus years investing in start-ups; Karteek and I worked at Kalaari Capital before starting Java Capital in 2020. We are willing to take outlier risks such as Agnikul - A company making India’s first 3d printed semi-cryo rocket engines or EPlane - Electric flying taxis. We believe as a pre-seed/seed stage fund if we can’t take such bets, there is no point in calling ourselves a VC," Vinod said.

Karteek Pulapaka, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital, said, “India is in the midst of a once in a century transformation and this will be underscored by cutting-edge startups. At Java, we have a strong record of backing and nurturing visionary founders developing disruptive business models and technology. We are guided by our values of being transparent with all stakeholders, building long-term and lasting relationships, giving founder friendly terms and promoting win-win outcomes."

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