SUMMARY
Good Capital will be investing $100K to $2 Mn in pre-seed to Series A rounds
It's looking to invest in businesses that are unique and in founders with "non-intuitive" ideas
The fund has completed its first close at $12 Mn and has invested in SimSim and Spatial
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Early-stage venture investment firm Good Capital has announced a $25 Mn fund. The venture fund, founded by brothers Rohan and Arjun Malhotra, had completed its first close at $12 Mn two months ago. It is expected to have a final close in 10 months.
The company is planning to invest $100K to $2 Mn across pre-seed to Series A funding rounds and along with the fund, it has also announced investments in video-based ecommerce platform SimSim and cross-reality platform Spatial. The company’s press statement on the fund says it backs entrepreneurs that have studied their startup’s sector minutely and bases its investments on the uniqueness of the idea and the founder’s understanding of the market conditions.
It has led a $1.25 Mn seed funding round in SimSim, which is a video-based e-commerce platform that is looking to replicate the offline consumption behaviour online through interactive experiences.
As for Spatial, it’s a cross-reality platform in the ARtech space and addresses challenges for the distributed workplace era. Good Capital’s investment comes alongside Uber cofounder and Expa founder Garrett Camp, Samsung Next and iNovia Capital, amongst others.
Good Capital’s Focus On Founders
“We will focus on investing in people who’re coming up with original ideas that are non-intuitive and are unique from what other people are doing.”- Arjun Malhotra, Good Capital
Speaking to Inc42, Good Capital’s Arjun Malhotra said it plans to fund entrepreneurs that focus on underserved areas and startups that working on the ground level to understand the market and the opportunities. Good Capital claims to be sector agnostic, and Arjun and Rohan have built a reputation by taking early bets on startups such as Meesho, HyperTrack and Autonomic.
“The top 50mn of the market is globally homogenous in preferences, behaviours, etc. For the next 350mn that are newly online, sectors are not as clearly defined yet so it’s a better proxy to find founders that are experimenting on original ideas,” Arjun told Inc42.
Alongside the brothers, the Good Capital fund will be overseen by an investment committee comprising former Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor, who is now a senior advisor at BCG; Rahul Khanna, founder, Trifecta Capital and HyperTrack founder Kashyap Deorah. Good Capital’s other limited partners include Symphony International Holdings Ltd, led by veteran investor Anil Thadani.
Not Slowing Down On Investments
With India in the grips of an economic slowdown, many investors are turning wary of the market. Tech giant Alibaba, for instance, is halting its investments in the market, while businesses that rely on consumption such as ecommerce are bracing for cutbacks in consumer spending.
Despite the economic slowdown, Good Capital will not be slowing down on its investments. “In the early stages, as long as the companies are able to find a model that is fundamentally strong and conserve capital until they find the right product-market set, then I do think that in the grand scheme of things, any economic slowdown right now is fairly short term given the context of the massive shift to the internet market now,” Arjun said confidently.
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