Kriscore Capital, a new venture firm focused on early-stage Indian tech startups, has announced the first close of its debut Rs 100 crore fund with a provision for an additional Rs 100 crore greenshoe.
With initial commitments of Rs 50 crore from a curated group of family offices and high net worth individuals, Kriscore plans to partner with 16 – 18 breakout companies that are solving large-scale problems using technology.
Investing in tech-driven businesses
The sector-agnostic fund will invest into tech-driven businesses at the pre-seed and seed stages with a bias for exceptional founders building across key trends in India including, Blossoming digital consumer story, China+1 supply chain opportunities, Global export of India’s premium market, Gen AI powered services, and Net zero 2070.
Notably, Kriscore has already made its first investment into a stealth-mode startup.
Rising Indian startup ecosystem
“India’s startup ecosystem is exploding, and Indian founders are building generational global businesses,” said Nilesh Balakrishnan, General Partner of Kriscore Capital.
“Apart from technical prowess and team strength, enduring entrepreneurship needs an ecosystem of support – including financial expertise, capital firepower, compliance mentorship, and strategic global connectivity to build exceptional businesses. We invest more than capital – we commit our time, expertise, and passion to help founders build something truly groundbreaking,” said Nilesh Balakrishnan, General Partner of Kriscore Capital.
Leadership team
With a unique team that boasts decades of experience across early-stage VC, investment banking, and financial services – Kriscore Capital will provide value-added services that focus on critical but non-operational aspects of the Founder journey that are underserved, but essential to derisking early-stage investments.
The fund also has an eminent Advisory Board comprising of Mr. D Sundaram (Lead Independent Director, Infosys Ltd), Mr. Shyam Srinivasan (ex-MD & CEO, Federal Bank Ltd), and Mr. Manish Khetarpal (Founding Partner, WaterBridge Ventures) in addition to a strong partner ecosystem of accomplished senior industry professionals to support its investee companies.
