Kamla Bhatt has a podcast with Seed Fund founder Mahesh Murthy.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder of Venture Intelligence India, which tracks venture capital activity in India and Indian-founded companies worldwide. View sample issues of Venture Intelligence India newsletters and reports.
In this podcast interview Mahesh talks about VC funding trends and investment opportunities in India. Seed Fund recently closed a round of $10 million of funding. They plan to invest in early or the seed round of funding for Indian start-ups. Mahesh says that there is about $1 billion in the investment pipeline that various VC companies plan to invest in India.
With so much money in the pipeline the inevitable question is what are the areas or sectors for investment? Mobile applications and content is Mahesh's answer. The math is simple he points out. There are over 80-85 million cell phone users, and for millions of people in India the cell phone will be the basic access device to the Internet. Mahesh's point is supported by a recent investment of $10 million into Mauj, a Mumbai-based mobile gaming company.
How much money is needed in the seed money for start-up in India? Mahesh says that in the initial or the seed round about $500-800k should get the start-up going. Indian start-ups do not need $2-3 million, the typical amount that US-based start-ups require at the seed fund stage he points out.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder of Venture Intelligence India, which tracks venture capital activity in India and Indian-founded companies worldwide. View sample issues of Venture Intelligence India newsletters and reports.