Artha Venture Fund

It is an independent, autonomous Board managed venture finance company based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. GVFL ushered in the dawn of venture capital in India. Founded in 1990 at the initiative of the World Bank, GVFL has supported ventures working on the cutting edge of technology as well as encouraged entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. Over the past two decades GVFL has raised nine venture capital funds which have supported over 105 companies. Unique feature of GVFL’s approach has been its broad-spectrum support to its funded entities that ranges from strategic direction to governance support. Today, GVFL has divested from over 75% of its portfolio companies with handsome returns. GVFL has carved a niche for itself by making marquee investments in early stage companies across sectors through various funds. Looking at the current excitement in the startup ecosystem and leveraging on decades of full investment lifecycle experience in startup investing, GVFL has launched ‘GVFL Emerging Enterprises Fund’. The fund focuses on highly scalable, innovative business models, across, sectors, which use technology as an enabler or differentiator and are backed by credible teams.

We invest in startups in B2C, B2B, Software and Hardware spaces, which target India as a market, and look to make 10 to 12 investments each year. Our team consists of a mix of entrepreneurs and those with operating experience to help early companies with what matters most: strategy. We do this by ensuring each portfolio company gets the all-important Managing Partner time, lots of it. Managing Partners work closely with founders to devise that all-important winning strategy, fundraising, people strategy and make those senior introductions. We have been venture investing since 2008, first as private investors and then as Orios from 2013. We are a part of three unicorns and several other large stories. Survival, scaling, hiring, shoestring-marketing, pivoting, firefighting, acquisitions offshoring, etc, we have been through them all with our companies. All companies we invest in are also taken through our 'Founders for Founders' #Misfits Program.

We are a family office with a venture capital arm that invests in seed and early-stage startups with follow on investments up-to Series A. We are sector agnostic but prefer tech-enabled businesses that are operationally profitable and have defensible USPs. We closely mentor and monitor our portfolio startups through their initial journey, to help them build sustainable and operationally sound businesses. We have a unique and self-sustaining investment and realization cycle. We diversify the investment risk through investing in clean energy assets, whose realizations flow back into our startup portfolio. Artha’s investment strategy is spearheaded by a deep expertise in identifying opportunities from inception and growing them into global industry leaders. With theme driven focus and strong network of strategic partners, access to the latest market trends gives us leverage. Artha’s unique Centers of Excellence and dedicated team ensure direct value addition to each of our current and prospective portfolio companies. We invest in high-yielding renewable energy assets and then we use the realizations from those assets to invest in start-ups. We plough the returns made from exits into renewable energy assets, thereby creating a self-sustaining cycle. THE ARTHA FAMILY The investment brains and operational expertise backing our proven track record. Artha Energy Resources: The green arm of Artha, believes in fulfilling global energy needs for sustainable economic development. Artha Venture Fund: An early stage venture capital which is a sector agnostic fund that invests across all geographies. ShowMeDamani: Shedding light on personal and professional development in the voice of Artha’s director.

We Provide accredited high-quality, curated insights and validated investment opportunities in the startup ecosystem to investors. With our in-depth investing and operational expertise we join hands to support the founders across the country at different levels from seed to series, pre to post revenue as lead or co-investor. Qi Ventures is a Venture Capital firm led by a team of veteran professionals with in-field expertise and passion targeting a huge market to support the founders with our network of investors aiming at mutual growth. Start-up ideas go through an exhaustive due diligence process broadly classified across Business model, Financial, Legal and Compliance before featuring in our investor dashboard. Qi’s investment thesis broadly follows the golden rule of deploying funds in revenue generating ideas with strategic exit roadmap. Qi Notes Life gives us few opportunities for accelerated growth. It takes an entrepreneurial spirit to recognize it and seize it. We recognize the vast wealth of knowledge and untapped potential within a start-up. We then invest in ambitious start-ups with incumbent management teams. As the economy emerges from the crisis, India is estimated to have 200,000+ start-ups by 2025 with a total market value north of $1 trillion. This gives Private equity investors a huge opportunity to invest in companies with the right potential - Enter an investment at the RIGHT TIME, ascend to its peak, EXIT after bursting into the BILLION DOLLAR VALUATION CLUB

We are an investment holding company with a long-term vision. Do not confuse us with an investment fund: our approach is different. We invest early and stay close to our founders through the turbulent first years. Naturally, we do not want to be forced into selling our shares once things start getting better and want to keep an ability to adapt our exit strategies and timelines to the reality of our portfolio companies. We are hands-on investors Our entrepreneurial backgrounds enable us to provide our entrepreneurs with insightful feedback and mentoring. Building a company is a tough journey, and founders are not omniscient. It is our job to help them learn and avoid mistakes.

Our approach keeps founders at the heart of everything we do. We areConviction-led: We value independent decision-making and lead all our investments. Long-term partners: We stay fully committed to founders' vision, no matter how long it takes. Sector specialists: We each focus on specific sectors to build a deep, informed point of view that fuels our investment strategy and portfolio support. Transparent: We keep founders in the loop and prioritize honest communication, making us partners they never have to second-guess. Engaged: We believe in staying actively involved through meaningful board participation and functional support. Our journey started like many other startups – in a Bengaluru basement 2016 When we set out to raise our first fund, the Indian VC landscape was shaky at best. Investors were cautious, several foreign VC majors had left the ecosystem, and successful exits were hard to come by. Amidst skepticism about the Indian market, we defiantly believed that the "golden decade" of Indian technology was upon us. We saw an opportunity for VC 2.0 in India – one that was stage-focused, expertise-driven, and committed to prioritizing real growth alongside valuations. Undeterred by a tough fundraising climate, we knocked on 1,200 doors to raise Stellaris’ first fund. These early struggles shaped Stellaris’ culture, allowing us to fully resonate with the fundraising challenges faced by early-stage entrepreneurs. 2017 We launched our first fund of $90 million. From the outset, we established a principle of having specialists on our team, enabling us to tap into deep sector knowledge, spot promising opportunities, and provide tailored support to the companies we backed. Out of our 19 investments in our first fund, 9 surpassed a valuation of $100 million, with several others on track to achieve this milestone. 2021 We closed our second fund of $225M and backed 25 companies, many of which are poised to become the leaders of tomorrow. We also had our first significant exit in the portfolio when 6Sense, a US SaaS company, acquired Slintel, in which Stellaris was the first institutional investor. 2023 Our portfolio company, Mamaearth, which we backed at the Series A stage in 2018, successfully completed its IPO. 2024 We launched our third fund of $300M and are now managing over $600M in assets. We're ready to support the next wave of innovative businesses with the same grit and determination that brought us here.