These 10 startups were shortlisted from 2,285 applications and with this, 100X.VC has to date invested in 70 startups
The 10 early-stage startups from Class 06 are edtech Super Scholar & SimpliClariFy, SaaS startups Broomees India, Wizzy.ai, honc & Instasell, D2C pet care Healthy Barks, fintech PensionBox, foodtech Red Basil, and spirituality platform Utsav App
Like always, 100X.VC has invested in these startups through SAFE notes or iSAFE notes (India Simple Agreement for Future Equity), an alternative to convertible notes used for investments
Since its first investment in December 2019, Sanjay Mehta-led 100x.VC has hosted six cohorts and backed 70 startups. Two years from the first cohort, the micro venture capital (VC) fund has announced the sixth batch with 10 sector-agnostic, ideation stage startups.
“For Class 06, 100X.VC had received 2285 pitches, shortlisted 356 and after a rigorous process, 10 startups received funding in Class 06,” the company said in a statement. The VC firm announced the names of the startups at VC Pitch Day on 3rd December. More than 1K investors, including VCs, corporate houses, angels, family houses from across the globe were in attendance.
Meet The 10 Early-Stage Startups That Are Part Of Class 06 Of 100X.VC
1. Bengaluru-based Healthy Barks is a fresh food and wellness brand for pets
2. Bengaluru-based PensionBox, a pension app for the private employed workforce
3. Mumbai based Super Scholar is an edtech startup, meant to be a go-to place for Gen-Z students for education scholarships
4. Delhi NCR-based Broomees is an online platform to safely hire verified and trained domestic help
5. An intelligent in-site search for ecommerce stores, Ahmedabad-based Wizzy.ai offers dedicated visitor’s search query SaaS products
6. Based out of Delhi-NCR, Red Basil Technologies is a B2B marketplace for restaurants to discover, connect and transact with food suppliers
7. Kolkata-based Utsav is a social networking platform that connects people from religious communities
8. Hyderabad-based honc is an auto care service aggregator, offering on-demand car wash partners
9. Edtech SimpliClariFy enables students to get mentored 1-on-1 by people who have achieved what the student aspires to do. The Delhi NCR-based startup claims to offer every career-related help to individuals
10. Mumbai-based Instasell claims to be the Shopify for Instagram businesses
Startups that are part of this batch have already received 100+ hours of masterclass apart from the funding. The masterclass covers a range of topics from industry experts from the pricing of products, business models, market sizing, product management to raising capital for growth.
Recently, 100X.VC also announced the launch of a not-for-profit initiative – Entrepreneurship Gurukul. Through the new initiative, 100X.VC will provide a free education platform to aspiring entrepreneurs where 200+ founders were onboarded for the 12 weekly sessions of Live and Video recorded content.
Founded in 2019, 100X.VC is led by angel investor Sanjay Mehta’s Mehta Ventures. Launched on a cohort-based investment model, the fund had announced the first batch in December 2019 with 20 early-stage startups. This was followed by 9 startups in Class 02, 10 startups in Class 03, 11 startups in Class 04 and 10 startups in Class 05.
In the past few years, the trend of micro venture capital (VC) funds has caught on in India with multiple VCs launching between 2014-2020. Taking the micro VC approach, the firm launched with the idea of using India SAFE notes or iSAFE notes (India Simple Agreement for Future Equity), an alternative to convertible notes used for investments.
The method allows an investor to make cash investments in return for a convertible instrument to buy shares in a future priced round.
Stating why the micro VC uses iSAFE notes, Mehta has previously told Inc42 that they involve greater scrutiny — an investor makes a cash investment in return for a convertible instrument and to comply with applicable Indian law. iSAFE note takes the legal form of compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) which is convertible on the occurrence of specified events.
