Abhishek Rungta, Pallav Nadhani, and others launch Seeders, an early-stage startup investment network from Kolkata, to invest in 24 startups annually

Paying it forward, a group of successful founders and angel investors have come together to formalise their investments in startups by forming Seeders, an early-stage startup investment network from Kolkata.

Led by Abhishek Rungta, CEO of INT; Pallav Nadhani, Founder of Charts.com; Alkesh Agarwal, Founder of Re-feel; Parthiv Neotia, Director of Ambuja Neotia Group; and Srish Agrawal, Founder of A1 Future Technologies; Seeders has already invested in five startups in H1 FY22.

These include D2C beauty & care brand Sanfe, HRTech and enterprise SaaS BHyve, enterprise SaaS, IoT, AI, and ML platform SafetyConnect, B2B solution provider using AI, ML, and AR Adloid, and skills-training edtech platform Kaizen Academy.

As the name suggests, Seeders aims to provide a fertile ground for startups to thrive and plans to increase the count to 24 deals a year and aims to invest Rs 1 crore to 2 crore per deal.

Speaking to YourStory, Abhishek Rungta said,

“This network is enabling non-savvy traditional investors to co-invest through the syndicate in smaller cheque sizes.” He adds that the strength of the network remains in creating sustainable impact by offering mentorship, guidance, and industry connections.

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With a focus on Indian tech startups, this group of founders and angel investors has individually and collectively invested in over 100 startups and witnessed some stellar exits over the last decade. Seeders focus market segment includes agritech, deeptech, spacetech, SaaS, and D2C companies, among others. Its portfolio includes leading startups like CropIn, Plivo, Chingari, Trell, Agnikul, and BluSmart, among others.

“Seeders is a high-impact network created by the founders, for the founders. Having been there and done it ourselves, not just help us identify great startups but also enable us to guide them in their journey of growth and scale,” said Alkesh Agarwal. He added that their investment thesis is centered around great founders who are committed and passionate enough to redefine the future.

This year, the Indian startup ecosystem has seen some exceptional results -- already more than $23 billion have poured in, and over 35 unicorns added in less than 10 months.

“Along with this, the pandemic has accelerated the pace of change and digital adoption challenging existing functions and processes across all sectors and domains,” said Abhishek.

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“We are witnessing massive adoption of digital across the country enabling faster market penetration and reach for GenZ business models. We are sure to see more investors coming to the high-risk-high-return angel funding space and being the early movers, we are thrilled to contribute and be at the forefront of this revolution,” said Srish Agrawal.