Bhaskar Majumdar: Transforming Startups with a USD 4 Bn Vision Unicorn India's funds target SaaS, climate tech, agritech, and more, aiming to provide significant returns while actively mentoring founders through business challenges.
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Starting a journey with senior roles at the Times of India, Zee Telefilms, and Altavista UK, Bhaskar Majumdar launched his first entrepreneurial venture, Recreate Solutions, in 2000. Backed by Insight Partners, this digital media company grew successfully and was eventually sold to a US systems integrator.
"Since then, I have been an investor in a number of technology and early-stage media businesses through my proprietary fund, Heath Ventures, and have invested in half a dozen start-ups in the UK and India across media technologies, PaaS, and social segments," says Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures (UIV).
As an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and a graduate of Harvard's AMP, his extensive experience has shaped his investment philosophy and approach.
In 2015, Majumdar and Anil Joshi launched Unicorn India Ventures, which focuses on the seed and early stages of technology-focused businesses, guiding them through international expansions and strategic market entries.
His approach is detailed in his 2021 book, "Everything Started as Nothing: How to Win the Startup Battle," which provides insights into the Indian startup ecosystem.
According to Majumdar, through Unicorn Ventures, he has invested in over 40 businesses with a combined equity value of USD 4 billion, which is growing rapidly.
Investment Thesis
UIV's investment thesis revolves around identifying startups with significant growth potential, particularly those bringing technological advantages to existing processes.
The Mumbai-based firm launched its first fund with a corpus of INR 100 crore, investing in 18 companies, including SmartCoin, Open Bank, Inc42, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, Clootrack, and FutureCure.
Majumdar emphasises that this fund has provided stellar returns to its LPs, making it one of the best-performing early-stage funds in India.
Fund II, launched in 2019 with a corpus of INR 300 crore, has invested in 20 companies such as Gamerji, ForeignAdmits, Probus, SocialSwag, Daalchini, Esmito, Finin, etc.
Recently, UIV announced the first close of INR 1,000 crore Fund III at INR 225 crore and has raised around INR 500 crore in its journey.
Majumdar plans to back 25 startups focused on global SaaS and digital platforms through this fund. Fund III is looking at newer sectors of climate tech, agritech, spacetech, and the semiconductor ecosystem.
"We would look at investing a first cheque of around USD 1 million to USD 2 million and would then look to invest in the follow-on rounds. As a part of its investment thesis, UIV invests only 20% of its investible corpus to create the portfolio and the rest to back the winners of the portfolio," shares Majumdar.
Investment Impact and Future Outlook
Majumdar emphasises UIV's role as "mentor capitalists," actively supporting founders through business challenges. A notable example is Pharmarack, where UIV facilitated the hiring of a seasoned pharma professional.
"The growth led to Pharmarack being acquired by a consortium of top pharma companies in India led by Sun Pharma for INR 111 crore, giving our LPs and the fund a stellar exit and at the same time infusing sufficient capital into Pharmarack to continue its growth journey," he adds.
With a positive outlook for FY 2024–25, UIV continues to focus on digitization, global SaaS, and emerging sectors like spacetech and semiconductors, aiming to build a robust portfolio that delivers substantial returns to its investors.
Facts:
- Portfolio size: 39
- Average Ticket Size: USD 500k to USD 1 Mn First Cheque
- Total Exits: 13 (partial and full exits)
- Assets Under Management: USD 200 Mn
