A Junior VC (AJVC)

Check you fit first

• ajvc wants Indian companies or teams raising pre-seed capital. An idea, a paper plan or a prototype is enough, and solo founders are welcome.
• If you have already raised a round, check the fund's limit on prior funding before you apply.
• You can say "yet to be incorporated" in the company name field. You will need to incorporate after acceptance.
• Be ready to build full-time once accepted.

How the process runs

• Fill the short form on the Apply page. It takes about 3 minutes and you hear back within 48 hours.
• If the fund likes it, you get a longer form on your business. The partnership reads every one, so answer fully.
• The final step is a call with the partnership, and a decision follows within a week.

Know the deal

• Terms are standard and the fund takes equity, so read the terms on the Founders Compass page before you apply.
• Applications are rolling. You do not need to wait for a batch.
• The fund says the application process itself is data-driven, using public, private and application data.

ajvc, short for A Junior VC, is a pre-seed venture fund that invests in Indian startups at the earliest stage. It began in 2018 as a newsletter and community about startups and venture capital, written by founder Aviral Bhatnagar, and by 2024 it had become ajvc Fund. The fund describes itself as India's most approachable pre-seed fund, and its site says it is regulated by SEBI.

Who it is for

ajvc says it is open to any Indian company or team raising pre-seed capital. Its homepage lists who should apply: teams with only a paper plan, teams with a working prototype, founders whose company is not yet formed, and first-time founders. The fund says an idea is good enough to apply and that solo founders are welcome. You do not need an incorporated company to apply, but you must incorporate once you are accepted, and the fund says it will help with that. Founders who have already raised can still apply as long as they have not raised above a limit the fund states. ajvc mostly invests in Indian-incorporated entities and may make exceptions for other places such as Singapore or the US. Once accepted, it expects you to build the company full-time, though you can apply while working or studying.

The Founders Compass

Every company ajvc backs joins its Founders Compass, which the fund calls its continuous support system for portfolio companies. The stated goal is to take a team from an idea to a real business, covering compliance, finance, accounting, product, team, sales, marketing, planning, revenue, legal and operations. It lasts as long as the company needs it, and the weekly time commitment is a few hours at most. You do not have to relocate; founders are invited to one meetup in Pune with the other companies the fund has backed.

What founders get includes weekly one-to-one time with a partner who has investing or operating experience, a 55-page document called Founderpedia, templates such as Gantt charts, gap assessments and a CRM, and launch visibility to an audience of 500,000 or more when you showcase your product or announce a round. The fund also lists credits from software and cloud partners such as AWS, Google Cloud, Notion AI, HubSpot and Linear.

Terms

ajvc keeps its terms standard so that there is no back and forth on price. Accepted companies get the same standard offer, and the fund takes equity in return. It does not wait for a batch to start: it runs the investment process as and when a company is accepted. Investments are made in cohorts, and its portfolio page tags companies by cohort, such as 24C1, 25C1, 25C2 and 26C1. The fund suggests spending on founder and team salaries and on technology and operations.

How applying works

The application is a short form that the fund says takes 3 minutes, and you get a yes or no within 48 hours. If it sees potential, it sends a longer form about your business, and the partnership reads every one. The last step is a call with the partnership, and the decision to invest comes within a week of that call. The fund says the whole process, from first form to final decision, takes about 3 weeks.

Portfolio

The site names companies including Nuyug, Chop Finance, Gaadimech, Jaagruk Bharat, Mithila Foods, Trufides, Iztri, Faraday, Caredale, Handy Panda and Mindcase, across sectors such as consumer brands, AI, compliance and construction supply.

Who runs it

Aviral Bhatnagar is the founder. His about page says he studied at IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad and worked at two venture firms before starting ajvc. The fund's team address for general questions is team@ajuniorvc.com.