South Park Commons, a Silicon Valley collective of engineers, founders, and researchers, is elevating an India-specific fund over six months after coming into the South Asian market in June, based on a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) final week. The precise dimension of the fund is but to be decided, although the itemizing units the goal at $40 million.
Based by Fb’s first feminine engineer, Ruchi Sanghvi, in 2016, South Park Commons entered India final yr by partnering with Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal. The India chapter, primarily based in Bengaluru, was the first world transfer of the platform that raised three funds to again early-stage startups within the U.S.
In 2018, Sanghvi was joined by her husband and enterprise accomplice, Aditya Agarwal, who beforehand labored at Dropbox as its VP of engineering.
Not like conventional VC funds and incubators like Y Combinator, South Park Commons appears for technologists who’ve robust concepts however will not be able to fundraise but — the “-1 to 0” stage, because the firm says in its FAQ. The collective runs two totally different applications: Neighborhood Membership for entrepreneurs who should not seeking to elevate capital, and Founder Fellowship to again founders with complete funding of $1 million ($400,000 funding upon becoming a member of this system and an extra $600,000 dedication for the following enterprise spherical).
South Park Commons has round 175 energetic members and over 800 alumni, per its web site. Round 80% are founders, whereas the remainder are area consultants and researchers.
In September, the group employed Angel One govt director and CBO Prateek Mehta as its founding accomplice for the India outpost.
India has been a difficult marketplace for startups total. The nation, house to over 149,000 startups, per the federal government knowledge, has solely 117 unicorns — the startups with no less than a $1 billion valuation. It satisfied world VC funds together with Accel, Normal Catalyst, and Lightspeed to proceed bullish on the Indian ecosystem, whereas others like SoftBank and Tiger World have discovered it difficult. Y Combinator additionally chosen simply 4 startups from India throughout its winter and summer time batches in 2024, down from 8 in 2023 and 47 in 2022.
Sanghvi and Agarwal didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
