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Raising early-stage funds is an uphill climb for deeptech startups. And not many are willing to back these bold startups until the breakthrough of the technologies they are building. 

IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE)-backed early-stage venture firm Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF) is one of the few providing Pre-Series A and Series A funding to deeptech and IP-focussed startups, who otherwise remain outside the profile and deal flow of most PE funds. 

This three-year-old Category-I Venture Capital (VC) firm has so far funded seven deeptech startups, and has made several other undisclosed investments in tech infrastructure/inclusion solutions, deploying almost 40 percent of its fund pool of $100 million.

These startups include credit-scoring platform CreditVidya, emotion recognition startup Entropik Tech, industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) startup DeTech Technologies, AR-enabled toymaker PlayShifu, and data analytics platform vPhrase. 

Co-founder Kunal Upadhyay says the idea of setting up BIF came from two broad thematic areas that were emerging out of the Indian startup ecosystem. 

One was the creation of solutions that can have an impact on the masses and are not restricted to just the creamy layer, and the second were solutions for the world coming out of India.

The Interview

From reshaping point-of-care treatments to safeguarding patient data, listen from the best of the healthtech industry in this episode of Build & Grow: Money Matters Season 3, in association with HSBC.

Editor’s Pick: App Friday

A picture is worth a thousand words, but what if you can gain knowledge just by swiping and scrolling pictures like on Instagram? 

Inspired by the concept, Bengaluru-based Edubite Technologies Pvt Ltd developed Yoda, an app that brings interesting and informative content through visuals. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Empowering on-demand businesses with JungleWorks

After graduating from IIT Delhi in 2009, Samar Singla went to the US to pursue PhD in applied physics. However, not enjoying this pursuit, he returned to India in a year.

Samar soon started helping his father, a poultry farmer, and realised what he enjoyed most was helping businesses. In 2017, he started JungleWorks, a Chandigarh-based SaaS startup that is making on-demand business an easy approach for all. Read more.

News & Updates

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Global game-changing products will come out of deeptech. It’s a multi-billion dollar opportunity and we are backing game-changing innovations that will be made in India, for the world.” 

— Kunal Upadhyay, Co-founder of Bharat Innovation Fund

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