If you are making the decision to raise venture capital for your business, you should first get familiar with what venture funds are looking for. You may also want to understand how venture fund economics works. After bootstrapping, there’s seed funding This is our specialty. Unitus Seed Fund is a “micro vc” or “seed fund”.… Read more >
Updates from Unitus Seed Fund
Should you take seed funding from a VC?
May 3, 2013 – Entrepreneur Info
It seems like every week that there is another venture fund which is announcing that they are now also making seed investments. The question for you as an entrepreneur is whether it makes sense for you to take a seed investment from these larger venture firms? The positives Deep Pockets. One of the biggest positives… Read more >
It’s been a big week for Unitus Seed Fund
April 23, 2013 – Media Coverage, Update
Unitus Seed Fund announces two new seed investments and the launch of a new India domestic seed venture fund. We were also awarded Best Indian Investor and signed on as a Founding Member of the India Impact Investor’s Council. And we received front page coverage in The Economic Times of India! This past week was… Read more >
Unitus Seed Fund announces setup of new Domestic Impact Equity Fund for India
April 18, 2013 – Investor Info, Update
Unitus Seed Fund (USF) today announced that it will be seeking approval from the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to setup a new India-based venture capital fund called Unitus Seed Fund India to make seed-stage equity investments in Indian BoP Startups — startup companies which serve large low-income populations in India. USF is targeting… Read more >
Unitus Seed Fund invests in facility management company Jack On Block
April 18, 2013 – BoP Skill Development, Investment
Unitus Seed Fund Invests in Jack On Block, Creating Jobs for BoP Workers We’re pleased to announce that we’ve completed our second investment this month, backing Jack On Block, another innovative BoP Startup based in Bangalore. Jack On Block is a new age facilities management company that offers handyman and maintenance services for homes, offices,… Read more >
Unitus Seed Fund Named “Best Indian Investor” for 2013
April 18, 2013 – Update
Unitus Seed Fund (USF) received the Villgro 2013 award for Best Indian Investor at the Sankalp Unconvention Summit 2013 in Mumbai this week. Vineet Rai, a USF fund advisor and a pioneer of impact investing in India, presented the award to Unitus Seed Fund partner Srikrishna Ramamoorthy. The Villgro Awards recognizes outstanding individuals and enterprises in the Social… Read more >
Unitus Seed Fund invests in skills training company iSTAR
April 11, 2013 – BoP Education, BoP Skill Development, Investment
Unitus Seed Fund is excited to announce that we’ve made a seed investment in iSTAR, based in Bangalore. iSTAR is a vocational skills training company that provides unemployed graduates with additional skills training to make them readily employable in the BFSI and ITeS sectors. iStar employs carefully-selected faculty and a unique activity-based learning model to… Read more >
Our revised definition of “Base of the Economic Pyramid” in India
April 10, 2013 – Entrepreneur Info, Investor Info
There are a lot of different definitions of who qualifies as living at the base of the economic pyramid (or “BoP”) in India. We reviewed a number of studies with varying conclusions and have created our own working definition for rural and urban BoP. As context, Unitus Seed Fund invests with a Profits and Values approach in… Read more >
Opportunities for India’s Un-employable Millions
April 9, 2013 – BoP Skill Development
India is at a unique position of being able to meet both its internal skills demand while at the same time fulfilling requirements of other countries and growing its economy. How? Much of the developed world has an aging population, while India has one of the youngest populations with about 600 million younger than 25,… Read more >
Bridging the Rural-Urban Divide
March 25, 2013 – BoP Skill Development
Kusum (name changed) hailing from a village in Bihar contacted Bodhicrew expressing her interest to work as a domestic worker. She was initially placed with a nuclear family in Delhi. When she quit, her parents suggested that she stay back in Delhi with her maternal aunt until her brother came for her. Two weeks later,… Read more >
9 tips on preparing to pitch to Unitus Seed Fund
March 21, 2013 – Entrepreneur Info
We have the opportunity to hear a LOT of pitches from seed-stage BoP Startup entrepreneurs in India. As expected, the pitch quality is highly variable. First impressions do matter, so it is worth the effort to prepare to deliver the right content in your initial investor meetup. Also see 10 things we really want to… Read more >
Unitus Seed Fund invests for both Profits and Values
March 15, 2013 – Entrepreneur Info, Investor Info
We’ve been investing for over a year in carefully-selected companies that we believe have the opportunity to drive scaled positive social impact for base-of-pyramid populations in India. And while we’ve had deep discussions with entrepreneurs around their values, motivations and plans, we had not previously articulated some of the specific values and supporting policies that… Read more >