Kriscore Capital Marks First Close Of INR 100 Cr Maiden Fund

Kriscore Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage tech investments in India, has marked the first close of its maiden INR 100 Cr ($11.7 Mn) fund, along with an additional INR 100 Cr through a greenshoe option.

The VC firm, launched by former WestBridge Ventures executive Nilesh Balakrishnan and former chairman and CEO of Lazard in India, K Balakrishnan, has secured commitments of INR 50 Cr ($5.8 Mn) for the first close from a group of family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

The fund, Kriscore Capital I, plans to partner with 16-18 startups that are solving large-scale problems using technology.

The sector-agnostic fund aims to back tech-driven businesses in the pre-seed and seed stages. These include the digital consumer wave, China+1 supply chain opportunities, global export of India’s premium market, GenAI-powered services and net zero 2070 goals. 

Kriscore Capital, launched in 2024, invests in early-stage startups with an average ticket size between $300-500K. 

Nilesh told Inc42 that the firm has already made its maiden investment in a stealth-mode medical tourism startup but did not disclose further details.

Nilesh worked with WaterBridge Ventures for over four years and stepped down as associate vice president, while Balakrishnan has been the chairman of multiple financial institutions, including Fedbank Financial Services, HSBC Securities and Lazard India.

This development comes at a time when investors are gaining interest to back early-stage startups across sectors.

As per Inc42 data, about 23 funds totalling over $3.2 Bn were launched in the first three months of the calendar year 2025, and it is evidently continuing strong into the second quarter as well.

Of the whole, 17 funds worth close to $1.5 Bn were launched to invest in early stage startups during the first quarter, focussing largely on sectors such as fintech, consumer services and enterprise grade AI solutions.

Only a day ago, former X India head Manish Maheshwari’s VC firm BAT VC launched a $100 Mn fund to back early stage ventures in India and US across sectors such as AI, fintech and SaaS.

In March, A Junior VC closed its first INR 100 Cr fund targeting pre-seed investments in India. In another instance, Prime VP announced its fifth fund with a corpus of $100 Mn focused on early-stage Indian startups.

Weeks later, All In Capital launched its second venture capital fund with a target corpus of INR 200 Cr and 2am VC launched its second fund to invest in 30 Indian startups, predominantly in pre-seed to seed stage.