K Balakrishnan’s Kriscore Capital raises Rs 5,000 crore of new microVC fund, targeting early-stage startups
Balakrishnan told Mint No further details were revealed during this week’s exclusive interaction in Mumbai.
He said investors include Sidharth Birla, Kohli, GMR and Parikh home offices. The fund is part of Kriscore Group and aims to ₹2 million, including Greenshoe option ₹1 million.
In Lazard, Balakrishnan resigned in 2013 to launch a financial advisor to Kriscore. Another decade later, Nilesh Balakrishnan, former vice president of Waterbridge Ventures, and Animesh Balakrishnan, former senior vice president of 3one4 Capital, this time a venture capitalist.
“I recovered for at least a while for the next six to twelve months until things stabilized and increased the number of targets. After that, I will take a step back from my daily routine, although my DNA will remain in the company all the time.
Balakrishnan started at DCM in 1984 and moved to Infrastructure Lease and Financial Services Co., Ltd. in the early 1990s. He is a chartered accountant banker who led HSBC’s investment banking business during the PSU privatization wave in India, after which he rebuilt Lazard’s Indian operations in 2004.
A huge opportunity
Chrisco capitalheadquartered in Mumbai, plans to invest in 16-18 startups ₹Each vehicle is 30-50 million, and then follow-up inspection is carried out ₹Eight, each of the nine selected portfolio companies has 80-120 million.
Nilesh Balakrishnan, general partner at Kriscore Capital, said the industry’s impossible fund will invest in the pre-seed and seed stage, biasing the trend of digital consumers, China +1 supply chain opportunities, global exports to India’s premium markets, Genai-Power-Power Services, and net zero emissions trends in 2070.
“In the early stages, there is a huge opportunity to create value through trading. If you run a large fund and join in the C-Series way, it’s hard to really impact. We want to make sure we don’t just fund the portfolio, but we also provide real support for our portfolio,” Nilesh said. “With a smaller fund size, you can really shoot a huge return of 5 or 6 times.”
In addition, the company will provide fundraising consulting, compliance and exit strategy building services to early stage startups.
In addition to the Balakrishnan family, Kriscore Capital also includes former Lazard banker Raghav Rao. The fund’s advisory board includes D Sundaram, vice chairman and managing director of TVS Capital Funds Ltd, Shyam Srinivasan, chief independent director of Infosys, senior advisor to TVS Capital Funds, former CEO of Federal Bank, Manish Kheterpal, Manish Kheterpal, co-founder and partner of Waterbridge Ventures.
Vikram Chachra, founding partner of early-stage venture capital firm 8i Ventures, said that in recent years, the capital gap in seed financing in India has widened and Micro-VCS is very useful.
Fill in the void
“The big money has become so large that it is rare to write checks below $5 million. This is less than ₹“The typical seed round has a 200 million range. At a time when new enterprise creation is still strong but early capital is very little, Micro-VC is stepping in to fill the gap in institutional capital,” Chachra said.
According to a report by Blume Ventures, there are over 100 Micro-VCs, most of which were established in 2022 and 2023, and typically investing $100,000-500,000 in seeds to the pre-season stage.
“These funds are typically invested in $1 million to $8 million and own 3-8% of startups. The total partners leading these Micro-VCS are former entrepreneurs, operators or active angel investors who often bring industry-centric expertise to the table.”
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