GSF Invests In 5 Early-Stage Startups From GSF Founders Academy’s Cohort

Early-stage venture capital firm GSF has invested in five startups which were part of GSF Founders Academy’s winter cohort.

GSF invested INR 1-2 Cr in each of the five startups, said Rajesh Sawhney, founder and CEO of GSF.

“Generally, GSF does two types of investments. Two-third of our investments are deployed for startups looking at domestic opportunities in Indian consumer markets. The remaining one-third of our investments are directed towards SaaS companies, which are Indian talent-driven but target global opportunities,” Sawhney said.

In line with this strategy, GSF invested in SaaS startups AppEQ and Humblx. The other three startups that secured funding from GSF – Growagro, Petmojo, and Zekardo – are looking to tap the opportunities in the domestic market.

“If you look at our investment strategy, we are looking for category creating companies. Petmojo is a market leader in the NCR region in petcare and pet services; Growagro is trying to create a new kind of veterinary services for ‘Bharat’; Zekardo is an automobile inspection platform that is entirely technology driven,” Sawhney said.

The CEO said GSF wants to stay invested in these startups at least for the next 10 years. It would also help the startups reach the next stage and prepare for their next round of funding in 12-18 months.

The development comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem continues to reel under the funding winter. The funding raised by Indian startups declined 10% to $5.4 Bn in the first half of 2023 (H1 2023) from the second half of 2022 ecosystem, while funding deals also fell 25% to 462.

Now, let’s take a quick look at the five startups which have bagged investments from GSF.

Growagro

The startup provides personalised and tailor-made solutions to farmers based on their individual needs. It connects farmers with experts and vets. Growagro’s main offerings include in-person and remote veterinary services for cattle, customised diet and nutritional plans to increase productivity and profitability of cattle, and providing nutrition and feed through retailers.

AppEQ

The startup enables sales and customer success teams to get quick and easy access to account information scattered across systems such as Slack, CRM, Helpdesk, etc. Its solutions can be plugged into existing tools such as Chrome, Gmail, etc. AppEQ provides services to Indian as well as US clients.

Petmojo

The petcare services startup offers four key care service lines- walking, training, grooming and boarding. It also offers door-step services Petmojo’s services are currently available in Delhi NCR.

Zekardo

The vehicle inspection platform provides car buyers and owners information about the health of their vehicles. It does this through its deeptech platform, which provides vehicle health diagnostics solutions.

Humblx

The SaaS startup helps housekeeping teams manage their day-to-day operations efficiently and at a low cost. Humblx provides a centralised and digital platform for housekeeping and facility management teams in hospitality and healthcare sectors, as well as offices and residential complexes.