Ryerson Futures Inc. and the Chokhani Group have announced a $15 Mn fund to invest in early stage technology startups connected to Zone Startups India. The fund will seek to invest between $50,000 – $500,000 in 10-15 startups every year.
“We have been active making early stage investments, and have seen tremendous interest in the market to also participate as well,” says Anil Chokhani. “Partnering with an existing accelerator allows us to leverage the benefits of a formalized program.”
This fund will make investments in scalable technology startups who are part of the Zone Startups India accelerator, and also will seek to find new startups to bring in to the program.
The fund will be raising capital from both Corporates and other high net worth individuals.
“We are seeing many great startups come through Zone Startups India, (our Accelerator Program in Mumbai); launching a fund to help rapidly advance these startups is a logical next step now that we have been able to establish a strong network in India with our partners,” says Matt Saunders, President of Ryerson Futures Inc. “Teaming up with Anil and Kirshna Chockhani increases the size of our network and amount of capital that we can invest to scale innovative technology companies.”
Anil Chokhani and Krishna Chokhani have been serial angel investors with Mumbai Angels and hold a deep interest in the startup ecosystem in India.
Started in February of 2014, Zone Startups India has incubated technology startups focused on data analytics, mobility, ecommerce, education, hardware, technology, human computing interface, mobile payments, healthcare and enabling platforms.
Its current portfolio startups includes Focus Analytics, Bug Clipper, Intugine Technologies, ArtZolo, Underdogs Gaming Studio, BOOKstreet to name a few. Zone Startups India works with up to 60 startups annually.
