USD 150m VC Fund launched to boost India, UAE startup ecosystem

HCL Founder and Chairman-Start-up Committee at FICCI (The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry), Dr Ajai Chowdhry, announced the launch of USD 150 million India-UAE VC Fund. This fund will be set up in the UAE to source, invest, and nurture promising start-ups through an accelerator to fuel the growth of India-UAE start-ups. It will be funded by investors across UAE, India and wider GCC countries.

The Fund aims to be a catalyst for creating a process for developing early-stage start-ups in India and the UAE into viable global ventures and making them attain unicorn level. It will target investment in a minimum of 50 demonstrated and validated start-ups based in India and the UAE over a period of the next five years, converting 10 into unicorns by 2025.

Addressing the event virtually, Dr Ajai Chowdhry said, “The Fund will bring investment opportunities to startups in India and the UAE. The Indian Angel Network Fund (IAN) will offer benefits to the investors from the UAE including the experience and knowledge that India offers. We are delighted to witness this collaboration and hope to see great results in the near future.”

Dr Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, Indian Angel Network & Co-Founder, NASSCOM, Founder of TiE, added that in recent years, new processes have been developed keeping in mind the changing needs of the economy, be it in technology, EVs, FinTech, Agriculture or Communication, which would get a boost through this VC Fund.

An MoU was signed at the Indian Pavilion at Expo 2020 to launch this fund.