Venture capital firm IDG Ventures India has forged a partnership with early-stage venture capital firm Axilor Ventures to invest in Indian technology startups with disruptive ideas.
The VC firm said that it would mostly focus on start-ups that are working on so-called deep technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality as part of the new Frontier Tech Innovators programme.
Through this partnership, IDG and Axilor will typically fund start-ups at the seed and pre-Series A stage. IDG Ventures typically invests around $500,000 to $1 million in early-stage deals and between $3 million to $5 million at the Series A stage.
Talking about their interest in deep technologies, Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman at IDG Ventures, said,
The Frontier Tech Innovators programme looks to discover disruptive software companies from India with a potential to dramatically change the global landscape. IDGVI has a strong track record of deep technology investments, including Active.ai, Sigtuple, Hansel.io, Infisecure, Forus, Perfint, Axio and Iviz.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and Axilor Ventures, comments on this partnership saying,
We are excited by the ambition of Indian entrepreneurs to build deep-tech solutions using frontier technologies to solve large problems in India and the world. Through this programme, Axilor will continue to support and mentor path-breaking entrepreneurs.
Last year, IDG Ventures had launched a programme called the “Digital Consumer Innovators Programme” to invest in early-stage consumer Internet ventures in India. Thus, the firm’s portfolio currently also includes e-commerce major Flipkart, Lenskart.com and online lingerie store Zivame, among others.
Axilor Ventures was launched by technology industry veterans including Kris Gopalakrishnan and Infosys co-founder S.D. Shibulal. It currently has a 100-day accelerator programme, and says to have nurtured 30 start-ups since it started operating in late 2014, and has invested in about 20 early-stage ventures. It typically invests up to Rs 3 crore for a minority stake and focuses on sectors such as consumer internet, healthcare technology, and fintech.
