YourNest raises Rs 300cr to fund early-stage startups, ropes in tech veteran Vivek Mansingh

Early-stage venture capital firm YourNest today announced the launch of its second fund with a corpus of Rs 300 crore.

The YourNest India Fund II, which will tap into Indian HNIs, will focus on pre-Series A funding in 25-30 technology startups with globally-focussed B2B and B2B2C models over the next 3-4 years. Sectors of interest include Internet of Things, electronic system design, artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, enterprise software and mobile Internet.

The first close of the fund is expected in about six weeks, and the final close in 18 months.

YourNest has also brought technology veteran and startup mentor Vivek Mansingh on board as a General Partner.

Mansingh had earlier served as a president of the collaboration and unified communication group at Cisco Systems and also carries his experience from Dell India as the head of research and development. He said in a statement that,

I have been an angel investor and advisor to venture capital firms for over 20 years. The reason I have decided to join YourNest is to realise my passion to engage with early-stage startups and founders to co-create successful global businesses.

Mansingh is also an investor in YourNest’s first fund, YourNest Angel Fund I, which, according to the firm, saw subscriptions from 144 individual investors and three institutional investors: IIFL Seed Ventures, Northgate Capital and Small Industries Development Bank of India’s India Opportunity Fund. The first fund had a corpus of Rs90 Annually, the portfolio plans to fund about 4-8 ventures.

YourNest founder and CEO Sunil K Goyal said,

This will allow the fund to construct a concentrated portfolio where YourNest is able to co-create successful companies by mentoring and working closely with the startups

The first fund's (corpus of Rs 90 crore) commitment period was over in end-March this year with an investment in 16 companies.

The percentage invested is 70. In keeping with international best practices, the remaining 30 percent has been retained for follow-on rounds, he said.

Also read : Reliance Jio sets aside Rs 5,000 crore venture capital fund for startups

Goyal added that while the initial commitment will continue to be in the range of Rs 2-4 crore with each startup, there will be greater opportunity to continue investments in subsequent rounds.

YourNest Angel Fund is a SEBI-registered, early stage venture capital fund, investing in businesses. Founded in 2011 by Sunil K Goyal, Sanjay Pande and Girish Shivani, they have by far made 16 investments in 13 individual companies.