South Park Commons, a Silicon Valley collective of engineers, founders, and researchers, is elevating an India-specific fund over six months after coming into the South Asian market in June, in response to a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) final week. The precise measurement of the fund is but to be decided, although the itemizing units the goal at $40 million.
Based by Fb’s first feminine engineer, Ruchi Sanghvi, in 2016, South Park Commons entered India final 12 months by partnering with Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal. The India chapter, based mostly in Bengaluru, was the first world transfer of the platform that raised three funds to again early-stage startups within the U.S.
In 2018, Sanghvi was joined by her husband and enterprise companion, Aditya Agarwal, who beforehand labored at Dropbox as its VP of engineering.
In contrast to conventional VC funds and incubators like Y Combinator, South Park Commons seems to be for technologists who’ve sturdy concepts however is probably not able to fundraise but — the “-1 to 0” stage, because the firm says in its FAQ. The collective runs two totally different packages: Group Membership for entrepreneurs who are usually not trying to increase capital, and Founder Fellowship to again founders with complete funding of $1 million ($400,000 funding upon becoming a member of this system and an extra $600,000 dedication for the subsequent enterprise spherical).
South Park Commons has round 175 energetic members and over 800 alumni, per its web site. Round 80% are founders, whereas the remainder are area specialists and researchers.
In September, the group employed Angel One government director and CBO Prateek Mehta as its founding companion for the India outpost.
India has been a difficult marketplace for startups general. The nation, dwelling to over 149,000 startups, per the federal government knowledge, has solely 117 unicorns — the startups with not less than a $1 billion valuation. It satisfied world VC funds together with Accel, Normal Catalyst, and Lightspeed to proceed bullish on the Indian ecosystem, whereas others like SoftBank and Tiger International have discovered it difficult. Y Combinator additionally chosen simply 4 startups from India throughout its winter and summer season batches in 2024, down from 8 in 2023 and 47 in 2022.
Sanghvi and Agarwal didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
