{"id":2937,"date":"2014-11-18T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T21:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/?p=2937"},"modified":"2014-11-18T13:56:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T21:56:02","slug":"unitus-seed-fund-adds-more-prominent-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/updates\/unitus-seed-fund-adds-more-prominent-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"Unitus Seed Fund Adds More Prominent Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notable US and Indian HNIs investing in profitable innovations for the masses<\/h2>\n

November 16, 2014. Bangalore<\/strong>: Unitus Seed Fund, India\u2019s leading venture seed fund supporting startups innovating for the masses, announced that it has now raised over USD $4 million from 16 high net income Indian investors in its Indian rupee fund. Additionally, Unitus Seed Fund announced that leading Seattle area tech executives, including Steve Singh, Diego Piacentini, and Bill Gates have invested in Unitus Seed Fund\u2019s affiliated offshore venture fund. Unitus Seed Fund has more than $20M USD to invest across healthcare, education, mobile commerce & value-added services, marketplaces & e-commerce, retail & distribution, agriculture, water and energy sectors. Unitus has already\u00a0announced 14 investments in India<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nBill Gates is Putting His Own Money
\ninto a Small Impact-Investing Fund Focused on India<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Economic<\/a><\/td>\nMicrosoft Co-Founder Bill Gates Invests in Unitus Seed Fund\u00a0<\/a>
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\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nBill Gates\u00a0Invests in Indian Venture-Capital
\nFund<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Next<\/a><\/td>\nGates Goes in on Impact Investing<\/a>
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\nAmerican investors encourage India HNIs<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As noted in the\u00a0September 2014 G8 report<\/a>\u00a0on impact investing \u201c\u2026the most common obstacle faced by impact entrepreneurs is securing early stage risk capital.\u201d Unitus Seed Fund and its leadership investors aim to address this challenge through their own work and by encouraging HNI investors to embrace impact more broadly.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cImpact investing is a powerful model with the potential to build markets and drive change for the people who need it most,\u201d said Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.<\/strong>\u00a0(Bill Gates\u2019 investment is a personal one and not associated with his foundation\u2019s work.)<\/p>\n

“I have invested in Unitus Seed Fund because I believe that Indian entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to field profitable and scalable solutions that unlock opportunity for the masses in India”, said Desh Deshpande, chairman of Tejas Networks. “The Unitus Group has a track record of finding and supporting the best entrepreneurs who are building impact businesses serving the base of the economic pyramid in India, and making good money at the same time. I hope others will join me in investing in impact funds from Unitus Group and other innovative managers.”<\/p>\n

\"2nd-india-close-headshots-800x80\"<\/p>\n

Unitus invests in India through two investment funds: Unitus Seed Fund India, a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-registered venture capital fund, and Unitus Seed Fund, LP an offshore venture capital fund.<\/p>\n

More than 50 leadership investors have committed to Unitus\u2019 offshore India-focused fund, including Bill Gates (Microsoft, Gates Foundation), Desh Deshpande (formerly Sycamore Networks), Romesh Wadhwani (Symphony TG), Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures), Steve Singh (Cleartrip, Concur) Soma Somasegar (Microsoft), Dilip Wagle (McKinsey), Geeta Aiyer (Boston Common), Kamesh Aiyer, Pradeep Singh (Aditi), Bharat Shah (Microsoft), Anoop Gupta (Microsoft), Nagesh Pabbisetty (Microsoft), Prady Misra, Vikram Chalana (Winshuttle). A number of leading foundations have also invested, including Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Crystal Springs Foundation, Pfizer Foundation, Sorenson Impact Foundation, and\u00a0others<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New investors in Unitus Seed Fund India<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"2nd-india-close-headshots-part-2.1-400x100\"<\/p>\n

New investors in Unitus Seed Fund India include Srikanth Iyer (former CEO of Pearson India), Sharvil Parikh (Phenix Consulting), Kishore Musale (Astarc Group), Jacob Ninan (Kottackal Business Solutions), Aroon Raman (Raman FibreScience). Unitus is currently\u00a0accepting inquiries<\/a>\u00a0from other HNI Indian nationals wishing to participate in the growth of startup businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very pleased to announce our growing group of Indian HNI investors who see the opportunity to invest in innovative high-growth startups serving the masses in India\u201d, said Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Partner of Unitus Seed Fund. \u201cWe are finding a large number of high-quality entrepreneurs in India who are creating disruptive businesses that can deliver superior financial returns to investors while improving the lives of millions of India\u2019s low-income populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unitus\u2019 fund is\u00a0open to receive investments<\/a>\u00a0from Indian national investors only, until December 2014.<\/p>\n

Joining with founding Investors to back the next generation of entrepreneurs<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"2nd-india-close-headshots-part-2-525x75\"<\/p>\n

The new investors have joined with founding investors in Unitus Seed Fund India including T.V. Mohandas Pai (Formerly Infosys CFO), Dr. Ranjan Pai (CEO of Manipal Education and Medical Group), Hemendra Kothari (DSP Blackrock), Pramod Saxena (CEO of Oxigen), Hema Hattangady (Conzerv\/Schneider), Ananda Kallugadde (Neobytes), Rajeev Bakshi (METRO Cash & Carry), and Ravi Venkatesan (Infosys, Microsoft, Cummins), and other entrepreneurs and business luminaries, listed\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0G8 report<\/a>\u00a0goes on to say \u201c\u2026there is growing recognition that markets and the private sector must play a more significant role if we are to solve or at least make a dent in addressing some of the greatest challenges facing developing countries worldwide.\u201d The 65 leadership investors in Unitus Seed Fund are doing their part.<\/p>\n

About Unitus Seed Fund<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Unitus Seed Fund is the leading venture seed fund supporting startups innovating for the masses in India. Unitus invests in healthcare, education, mobile commerce & value-added services, marketplaces & e-commerce, retail & distribution, agriculture, and water & energy sectors. Founded in 2012, Unitus Seed Fund is part of the Unitus Group, a premier financial services group operating in India and other emerging markets since 2000. Unitus Seed Fund is based in Bangalore and Seattle.\u00a0More about Unitus Seed Fund\u00a0<\/a>><\/a><\/p>\n

Learn about investing in Unitus Seed Fund’s rupee fund ><\/a><\/h2>\n

Tags: bill gates<\/a>, fundraising<\/a>, impact investing<\/a>, india fund<\/a>, investors<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notable US and Indian HNIs investing in profitable innovations for the masses November 16, 2014. Bangalore: Unitus Seed Fund, India\u2019s leading venture seed fund supporting startups innovating for the masses, announced that it has now raised over USD $4 million from 16 high net income Indian investors in its Indian rupee fund. Additionally, Unitus Seed… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_aioseop_title":"","_aioseop_description":"Leading Seattle area tech execs, including Steve Singh, Diego Piacentini, and Bill Gates and HNIs in India have joined as leadership investors","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[170,169,157,168,171],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unituslabs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}