Pentathlon Ventures Debuts VC Fund Worth INR 76 Cr, To Invest In 20+ B2B SaaS Startups

Micro VC funds are becoming common in the Indian startup ecosystem. Recently, Gemba Capital and ISB Alum-backed Atrium Angel announced micro VC (venture capital) funds. Joining the bandwagon, Pune-based Pentathlon Ventures, an early-stage B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS)-focused VC firm, has announced the final close of its debut fund at INR 76 Cr and said it will invest in 20+ B2B SaaS startups.

With a ticket size of INR 75 Lakh to INR 3 Cr, Pentathlon Ventures will invest in pre-seed to Series A rounds of startups proven product-market fit, intellectual property, and potential for market disruption. The VC claims to have partnered with industry veterans like Gireendra Kasmalkar of Ideas to Impacts, Sandeep Chawda, ex-MD at Globant India, Madhukar Bhatia & Hemant Joshi of Sapience Analytics, Saurabh Lahoti who has been a part of 3 early-stage funds, and Shashank Deshpande of Clarice Technologies.

Other prominent names on the board of Pentathlon Ventures include Shirish Deodhar (Serial entrepreneur), Martin Umaran (Globant), Mohan Kumar (Avataar Ventures), Pravin Bhalerao (Pranitya Wealth), and Abhishant Pant (The Fintech meetup). Founded in 2020 by Hemant Joshi, the VC firm’s portfolio includes investments in workflow automation startup Superpro.ai, edtech Extraaedge, healthtech Kenko Health, insurtech Riskcovry, deeptech startup TurboHire, PoS lending startup ShopSe, HR tech Rezolve, among others. 

Typically, micro-VC funds have a corpus of less than $30 Mn (INR 200 Cr+) and they invest in 10-15 pre-seed and seed stages of startups, rarely going to post-seed. According to a recent report by IVCA, AWS and Praxis Global Alliance, the number of micro-VC funds in India has increased to 88 in 2020 from 29 in 2014.

Recently, the government also unveiled the Startup India Seed Fund of INR 945 Cr ($127.3 Mn) to financially support about 3,600 early-stage startups and 300 incubators. The fund would provide financial assistance for proofs of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialisation of products or ideas.

In the past year, VC firms have become a suitable form of funding for small businesses and startups seeking colossal capital investment in their early stages of growth. The Inc42+ Annual Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2020 shows that early-stage startups have raised $403 Mn at the seed stage in 2020 — nearly double the $255 Mn in 2019.