India’s first-ever platform (india.growvc.com) aiming to bring together start-ups, investors and experts; Backed by global funding service, Community Investment Pool and USD 5 Million Virtual Co-Investment Fund
July 19th London, Hong Kong & Mumbai – In what could be a defining milestone in Indian entrepreneurial development domain - Grow VC, the ‘Virtual Silicon Valley’ software platform and world’s first-ever ‘Crowd-Funding’ and interaction platform for startups announced the launch of a local funding network in India, in association with Springboard Ventures – an ensemble of experts dedicated to promoting start-ups. Based around the same model as the existing global funding network Grow VC offers, the Indian local funding network will be the first of many “local” networks the company looks to launch within its wider global network in the coming months. Grow VC’s community platform for entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their early stage startups through the “crowd-funding” has already gathered considerable interest with hundreds of new sign-ups each month and active participation of investors, startup service providers, advisors and entrepreneurs within the online community.
Grow VC works to create a “Virtual Silicon Valley” community and develop new models for more efficient early phase funding. Grow VC just announced the Virtual VC Co-investment Fund to enable VC’s to participate in Grow VC’s seed investments. IndiaCo a leading investment management firm from India is the first partner to come aboard the fund and has committed to invest $5 million to the virtual fund will pave the way for other VC’s to join the fund. The local network in India will be spearheaded by Springboard Ventures creating a tailored network suited to Indian needs and culture.
The launch of Grow VC India will pave the way for many ‘firsts’ in the innovative start-ups domain within the country as pointed out by Satish Kataria - Managing Director at Springboard Ventures. “It would be the first ever single platform to bring together the various entities which revolve around the creation and growth of start-ups while allowing them all to interact and work together with each-other. Besides uniting angel investors and entrepreneurs, this platform offers a first-time opportunity to various experts and consultancies to now come forward and offer their services to start-up community through innovations such as 'Service Investments'. “ says Satish. This will essentially help enhance the ‘funnel’ or ‘bandwidth’ of support to Indian entrepreneurs bringing into the system not just funders, but experts, advisors and other resources which can help create and grow successful start-ups.
Indeed, as a significant start towards this journey of bringing all key Indian entities together, Indian Angel Network – India’s first and largest network of Angel Investors – having more than 125 members throughout the country, have agreed to associate with Grow VC India – in order to further strengthen and boost Indian start-up eco-system.
“We see that India is very important market for Grow VC, because it has a strong entrepreneurial culture and also nowadays, more investors that are interested in investing in local but also international companies”, says Jouko Ahvenainen Founder & Chairman at Grow VC. “India also has a lot of experience in crowd-funding and other innovative finance models. We have already now seen a lot of Indian users also in our global service.” he adds. Local networks will play an important role in Grow VC’s strategy to build a strong global start-up funding community and the company aims to offer options and freedom to its users allowing them to operate on a local level or operate on a global level too if they choose to.
Speaking on further developments of the Grow VC India network, Springboard Ventures is already in talks with other leading angel investment networks who have expressed keen interest in participating on the platform. “Grow VC India would tap into different categories of start-ups setting in place self-sustainable groups within the larger platform each with its own set of domain-specific experts” states Saurabh Agarwal – Director at Springboard Ventures. “The larger base of participation will also lead to generation of a larger 'Community Investment Pool' which would become available to be invested in start-ups.” he adds. Besides the investment tools and advantages the model offers, Springboard Ventures will also offer host of 'convenience' services to the subscribers within the network enriching their engagement with start-ups and offering professional help.
With India having the innovative talent and technological capabilities present today the Grow Venture Community (Grow VC) India hopes to extend the support of investors, advisors, service providers and the entrepreneurial community in general much the way enjoyed by the community in the Silicon Valley for so many years. “With the support of a strong local network in place to back great ideas and assist in the growth of early stage start-ups we expect to see a lot more successful ventures come out of this potential goldmine of young talent.” says an optimistic Valto Loikanen Founder & CEO at Grow VC. “The next Google or YouTube can come out of India and with the right network of people working together to discover and nurture innovative start-ups, it could be sooner than you think”, Valto states.
