Exclusive: Chennai-Based Termsheet.io Which Simplifies Startup Fundraising Process Gets Funded

TermSheet.io has raised approx. $100k in a pre seed round of funding led by angel investors from India, Dubai, Singapore and the US, tells Vivek Durai, founder of Termsheet. Some of the participating angel investors in TermSheet.io’s pre-seed round are Anand Vijay, Nipun Dureja, Satyajit Heeralal, Keith Rodricks and Gaurav Lochan from the US, Azmul Haque from Singapore, Hari Gopala Krishna from Dubai and Nikhil Bagri from India.

This takes the total funds raised by Chennai-based TermSheet to $165k, it had earlier raised around $65,000 from a subset of these investors. “We’re growing rapidly and working fast to automate the deal making process. We’ve been receiving a lot of interest from angel investors looking to invest in TermSheet.io and we’ll be looking to close another round in the next couple of months” says Vivek.

Making Fundraising A Hassle Free Process

Vivek Durai, the founder of Chennai startup Humble Paper and of the startup community filterkaapimafia, noticed that the fundraising experience of most fellow founders in the community was a sub-optimal experience. He also noticed that there are few startup founders who are savvy enough to get through to a few angel investors but they face significant challenges stitching them together for a larger seed round. He launched TermSheet as a product to solve these problems. It basically helps startups to accomplish their funding goals.

Startups that have investors in hand but want a better way of closing the investment (the usual experience involves running after lawyers, chartered accountants and company secretaries and then managing all kinds of paper work and signatures) approaches Termsheet. These startups are than vetted by the team based on traction and other factors. Termsheet team further makes sure that the startup’s paperwork is in place, so that this remains a hassle free experience for the investors too.

Termsheet has already closed 2 deals, which includes $1 Mn fundraise by Ather Energy and aisle’s $100k round. The startup is currently working on 4 other deals.

So far 700 startups have registered on the Termsheet platform since its launch. Vivek emphasised that Termsheet.io was still currently in closed beta and was working with selected startups and qualified investors to close deals in an accelerated manner. “We like to hedge our bets on startups that we think will go on to raise follow-on funding and our careful curation process allows us to do just that – work with some of the best start-ups and founders in the market. Over time we will cede the curation function to qualified investors who will lead their own syndicates,” he tells.

Going forward, the startup hopes to have a run rate of 5 deals a month.

Termsheet has recently also got few people in its team which includes Sonia Pradhan, who till recently was with TiE Chennai, joined as Chief Operating Officer and Gopi Krishna, a former lawyer turned MBA grad left his job as a product manager at Amazon’s Seattle office to join TermSheet as its Head of Products. “We’ll be hiring further to add to our technology talent in the coming months. A strong technology team will allow us to build a platform that is truly scalable and focus on other areas of deal making that can be automated,” added Vivek.

The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Mumbai-based law firm Innove Law. Innove Law was set up by Suhas Baliga, a National Law School of India University alum. ”We see Innove Law as a strategic partner in our curation process to conduct independent legal due diligence on the startups. Suhas not only brings a wealth of experience but also has an innate sensibility in understanding what it means to work with startups.”

Fundraising has always been a tedious task. Some people will say that it’s easier to raise funds when compared to getting those funds in their bank accounts. Termsheet is solving a problem faced by many especially in a country where laws don’t always be in the favour of a startup.

Read complete coverage of Termsheet here.