In the middle of 2019, Sanjay Mehta, an angel investor with 130+ startups in his personal portfolio, launched 100X.VC to fund “100 interesting ideas”, and curate a pipeline of “fundable companies” for larger VCs.
It unveiled its first cohort of 20 startups later that year at a gala event in IIT Bombay.
Eighteen months later, in May 2021, the Mumbai-headquartered fund crossed the 50-startup milestone, with its last 21 investments coming inside two quarters. Did India need yet another early-stage VC?
Sanjay tells YourStory, “India lacks lead investors who can curate deals and give social proof for fundable companies. We wanted to create a discovery platform by funding the company, and having our own skin in the game. We don’t take any transaction fees. We tell the world that these are our moats, and you can join the cap table. And we make money along with other investors only when we make an exit.”
Read more: How 100X.VC creates ‘social proof’ for seed-stage startups and drives deal flow for larger funds
