Java Capital launches INR 75 crore seed stage fund

Java Capital, a seed stage focused SEBI registered Alternate Investment Fund (AIF), has announced the launch of its first fund with a corpus of INR 75 crore including a greenshoe option of Rs 25 crore. The Fund has achieved its first close at INR 30 crore and expects to do a final close in the next 6 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 INR 2 crore. The fund will 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 & 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. Besides being experts at pre-seed to series A, the team has deep experience & expertise across diverse sectors.

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 & sustainability verticals out of which Java has already invested in 4 companies from this fund.

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 into Y-Combinator accelerator post Java’s investments into them. As of now the combined valuation of Java’s portfolio is USD 385 million. 

Java Capital is one of the very few funds at the seed and pre-seed stage with three full-time partners who can allocate enough time, share expertise and facilitate resources to each of the portfolio companies thus accelerating the process of achieving Product-Market Fit and business scale up plans.  

Vinod Shankar, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital says, “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.  All three of us have collectively spent over 25 plus years investing in start-ups, Karteek and myself 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.”

Bhargavi, who would be based in the Silicon Valley, is building a strong network to help with market access for Java Capital’s portfolio in the US market. This provides Java Capital’s portfolio an edge to access capital in the North American market. Java capital is one of the very few funds with India-US crossover strategy to effectively leverage opportunities, talent and capital across the two geographies.

Bhargavi V, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital says, “We are super excited to announce the launch of our fund and we are strong believers in long term growth story for India, we work with our ecosystem and partners in the true spirit of long term games with long term people leads to significant outcomes for the society at large.  We are in the venture space for the next couple of decades and would like to grow Java Capital as the first port of call for founders looking to start companies.”

Karteek Pulapaka, Co-founder & Partner, Java Capital says, “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. Our vision is to meaningfully contribute to the Indian startup ecosystem and be a part of this historic transformation.”