Stellaris Venture remains focused on concentrated startup investments

Early-stage venture capital firm Stellaris Venture Partners says it will continue to be selective about its investments in startups and believes in remaining invested for the long haul.

Stellaris, in November 2024, announced the close of its third fund with a size of $300 million with plans to invest in startups at the seed and Series A stages of funding.

In an interaction with YourStory, Alok Goyal, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners, said, “We back a startup after a lot of conviction and our philosophy is to stay through with them for the long haul.”

Goyal emphasised Stellaris does few deals each year and remarked that he, on average, does about one odd transaction annually.

“We back founders who believe that there is a hard problem to solve with a large market potential which grows into a sustainable business,” Goyal said.

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Stellaris Venture Partners was founded in 2017 and its portfolio includes companies such as Whatfix, Mamaearth, Propelld, Nestasia, Dashtoon, and Slintel. It has had exits in Slintel and Mamaearth.

The VC firm believes that the early-stage funding category continues to remain a thriving ecosystem and it has witnessed a 5x deal flow between 2018 and 2023.

Stellaris is a sector-agnostic fund but each of its key partners come with deep domain expertise which helps them make their bets. Its portfolio includes startups from segments ranging across AI, software, consumer brands, fintech, mobility, healthcare etc.

Goyal said their team consists of individuals who come with strong operating experience which helps them while engaging with the startups. He has been associated with the VC industry since the 2007 time frame and prior to that was chief operating officer at SAP India.

Having witnessed the changes in the Indian startup ecosystem close to two decades now, Goyal believes the overall narrative of India has been very positive. This can be seen in the number of funds available in the country across all stages of investment and the growing number of domestic limited partners.

“We have seen most of the market categories of startups doubling in size,” he remarked.

At the same time, Stellaris sees numerous investment opportunities opening up in the Indian startup ecosystem. Goyal believes there is enough room to introduce newer consumer brands or build newer businesses in the financial services sector given the continuous demand for credit. Also, it has backed startups that are rethinking how software can be deployed in the enterprise space.

On the prospects of the Indian startup ecosystem, Goyal remarked, “The environment is a lot fairer to the entrepreneurs today and good founders do choose any season to start their ventures.”