Good Capital Launches Second Fund Worth $50 Mn

Early stage venture capital (VC) fund Good Capital announced its second fund with a target corpus of $50 Mn and a greenshoe option of $25 Mn. The VC firm will look to back founders leveraging AI for distribution, personalisation or business operations.

Good Capital will write up to $1.5 Mn cheques over the next four years, with the option to get global investors to follow on. The VC firm will therefore invest in around 30-35 startups with the second fund, though it did not confirm any target portfolio size.

Founded in 2019 by brothers Arjun and Rohan Malhotra, Good Capital invests in pre-seed to Series A funding rounds. The VC firm launched its first fund worth $25 Mn in 2019, writing cheques between $100K and $2 Mn.

“Integrating AI is now table stakes for any startup. Much like the platform shift to mobile in the past, the success of tech businesses will depend on how they leverage AI”, said Arjun Malhotra. “This isn’t an AI-focused fund as much as a recognition of a land-grab moment, where startups leveraging AI in intelligent ways will have the right to win.”

“We invest with deep conviction by being lead investors for every investment we make”, said Rohan Malhotra. “At an idea stage when time is precious for startups, Good helps entrepreneurs get into business quickly rather than spending weeks cobbling together small amounts to raise their first round.”

To be sure, Good Capital is an early investor in unicorns including Meesho and LEAD School, as it also invested in the listed fintech Paytm. Other startups in its portfolio include Spatial, Zorp, Skillbee, Simsim and SolarSquare, among others. In all, the VC firm has invested in 23 startups so far, according to its website.

Vidit Aatrey, the cofounder of Meesho, added, “As one of their longest portfolio relationships, I can attest to Rohan and Arjun’s bottom-up approach. They worked with us through several iterations of what eventually became Meesho’s business model and played a role in guiding us and helping us with challenges.”

Good Capital joins a fast-growing list of investment firms making fund launches or announcing fund closes this year. According to data collated by Inc42, the first half of 2023 has already seen nearly $4 Bn in investment fund announcements.

Some of the most recent fund launches include Arkam Ventures launching its third fund with a target corpus of $180 Mn, Lumikai launching a $50 Mn gaming-focused fund and Blume Ventures announcing the first close of its continuity fund at INR 200 Cr (around $25 Mn).