BENGALURU: Venture capital firm Accel India has announced its pre-seed funding initiative ‘Atoms to fund start-ups which are at an ideation stage, not necessarily product/service-ready.The year which has seen a record 25 start-ups turn into unicorns has also attracted many funds towards those new-age firms which require working capital before even floating their operations.
Accel India’s Partner Prayank Swaroop said that the new fund will invest up to $250,000 in a pre-seed stage for those entrepreneurs/firms that don’t have a product/ revenue or customers yet. The investments will take place through uncapped convertible note that will transform into equities in the next funds raise.
The investment firm said that it will focus on start-ups in India as well as southeast Asia as a part of the Atoms initiative. Accel backed various start-ups in 2021 including ensa Brands, Captain Fresh, Fashinza, Powerplay and CreatorStack.
Unicorns like Flipkart, Swiggy, Freshworks, Zetwork, Moglix among various others are part of Accel’s portfolio. Swaroop said in a blogpost that besides the monetary support, the founders will also be able to utilise the mentorship/ ideation of seasoned professionals from other portfolio start-ups.
“We can join any round that a start-up is raising, e.g. if a start-up is planning to raise $500k from angels, we can be part of that $500k or we are ok to add $250k to the $500k round and make it $750k... Our investment will be a $250k uncapped convertible,” Accel said in a statement.
