INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As expectations from seed investors intensify, a new stage of investment has established itself earlier in the venture-backed company life
or pre-product businesses seeking their first bout of institutional capital
While some funds are happy to invest that early, Afore seeks slightly more mature companies.Afore invests between $500,000 and $1 million in
As it kicks off its second fund, founding partners Anamitra Banerji and Gaurav Jain tell TechCrunch they plan to lead all of their
investments.
We have the opportunity to build a firm that defines a category. - Afore founding partner Anamitra BanerjiStandouts in
coaching business BetterUp, childcare information platform Winnie and Modern Health, a B2B mental wellness platform.Afore portfolio
companies have raised more than $360 million in follow-on funding, with an aggregate market cap of $1.5 billion, Jain, the founding product
manager at Android Nexus and former principal at Founder Collective, tells TechCrunch
Since then, the landscape for seed investing has shifted
Early-stage investors have begun funneling larger sums of capital to standout teams at the seed, while billion-dollar venture capital funds
set aside capital for serial entrepreneurs working on their next big idea
We knew that this was going to be a massive category just like seed was before it
programming, including its annual Pre-Seed Summit
stage include Hustle Fund, which closed an $11.8 million debut fund last year, plus the $20 million immigrant-focused pre-seed fund
Unshackled Ventures and the predominant seed and pre-seed stage firm Precursor Ventures, which announced a $31 million second fund earlier
this year.In the past year alone, more than $200 million has been dedicated to the pre-seed stage, with at least nine new funds launching to
nurture early-stage startups.More and more firms are setting up shop at the pre-seed stage as competition at the seed stage reaches new
While the pre-seed stage, for the most part, remains protected from competition at the later stage, these firms still have to
