Nikhil Kamath’s Gruhas and Collective Artists Network Launch Startup Fund

Nikhil Kamath, Abhijit Pai’s Gruhas and the Collective Artists Network have partnered to launch a startup fund to invest in consumer-facing brands and products.

The fund will invest up to a million dollars in its typical investment and will have around 10 startups in its portfolio. The fund will also make follow-on investments in its portfolio startups. 

“This partnership represents a memorandum of understanding and intent between Gruhas and the Collective Artists Network,” said the two companies in a joint statement.

“By combining their networks and resources, the two units are poised to revolutionise the Indian business landscape, empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs and driving the growth of the consumer products and technology sector,” the two added.

Gruhas, launched in 2021 by Pai and Kamath, has invested in 26 startups, including the likes of Licious, Strata and Buyofuel, among others. In 2023 alone, the fund has invested in 11 startups, with its latest investment coming in the $2 Mn funding round of The Mainstreet Marketplace last month.

The VC firm also had plans to launch a venture fund worth $150 Mn, but there have been no announcements on the matter so far. Gruhas, however, has an accelerator programme, ASPIRE, which finalised its first cohort of startups last August.

The Collective Artists Network, on the other hand, is a Mumbai-headquartered talent management agency. The agency, founded in 2009 by Vijay Subramaniam, manages and offers talent across entertainment and sports. The talent agency picked up an undisclosed amount of funding in a corporate round from Glance in 2021.

The fund launch comes when India’s startup ecosystem has seen funds worth nearly $4 Bn announced so far in 2023, according to data compiled by Inc42.

Some of the most recent funds launched include Good Capital’s $50 Mn fund, Arkam Ventures’ third fund with a target corpus of $180 Mn, Lumikai’s $50 Mn gaming-focused fund and Blume Ventures’ first close of its continuity fund at INR 200 Cr.

Many of these funds have been thematic, focused on investments in diverse themes and companies operating in a specific sector, including its sub-sectors, with a pool of funds dedicated specifically to them.

Per an Inc42 analysis, more than 220 new startup funds were announced with around $30 Bn fund corpus between January 2021 and May 2023. 

Of these, more than 35% (77 funds) were thematic or theme-based, lapping up a fund corpus of more than $5.6 Bn. Additionally, of these 77 thematic funds, around 57% of funds were floated by VCs.