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Shyam Menon’s career in venture capital is a testament to his dedication to deep tech and sustainability. Starting his career in 2008 with Conduit Ventures, Shyam honed his expertise in deep science and energy technology investments across Europe. He then moved to Nadatur Holdings in Singapore, where he focused on sustainability investments in South and Southeast Asia.
Returning to India in 2012, Menon co-founded Infuse Ventures, a climate tech focused fund, and by 2018, he co-founded Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF) to bridge the funding gap for deep tech, consumer, fintech, edtech and technology enabled execution businesses.
According to Shyam Menon, Co-Founder and Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund, since inception, the company has been one of India’s earliest deep-tech focused pre-Series A to Series A funds and has been committed to nurturing and accelerating breakthrough innovations from India.
“All our partners are from deep tech startups, VC or corporate backgrounds and we aimed to understand the challenges deep tech startups face in raising capital at an early stage and provide the necessary guidance and support to help these companies build solutions for the world from India,” he said.
The Bengaluru-based fund’s investment thesis focuses on areas such as deep science, AI and hardware technology, with an emphasis on technological differentiation and scalability.
Menon emphasized that while selecting startups, they consider several criteria, including the size of the market potential, the credibility of the team, the vision of the founders, scalability, traction, and most importantly, the degree of innovation. “We focus on the amount of differentiation and innovation in the technology being developed so that it cannot be easily imitated by others.
Since its inception, BIF claims to have made 16 investments and backed startups such as Entropik Technologies, Detect Technologies, A5G Networks, FireCompass, Human Edge, Terra, Portl, Clodura.AI and PlayShifu.
“Most of the startups in our portfolio have grown successfully since we invested in them at the early stages of product development,” Menon said. “We typically invest up to $5 million per company, starting with a check of $1 million to $3 million and reserving the remainder for follow-on rounds. We prefer to lead funding rounds and determine the price.”
Menon is optimistic about the outlook for FY24-25 and expects increased activity in areas such as Gen AI and related hardware innovations, healthtech including its involvement with genetics and advanced computing, space tech, energy tech, quantum computing, robotics and cybersecurity.
“With growing support from government initiatives and a maturing ecosystem, we expect to see a surge in quality deep tech startups in the country. Our goal is to continue to provide these startups with the patient capital and strategic support they need to navigate their development path and achieve commercial success,” Menon said.
fact:
Portfolio size: 16 Average ticket size: Starting at US$1-3 million, up to US$5 million per company Total exits: None Assets under management: US$100 million across two funds: Bharat Innovation Fund and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund
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