Axilor

Choose the right route

• A research-led HealthTech or life-science idea with IP: Axilor Labs.
• An early-stage startup looking for seed funding: the seed fund's contact route, once you have confirmed the fund takes companies at your stage. The website does not say.
• An accelerator cohort: none is open. The last cohort the website cites is winter 2019.

How applications work

• Labs: fill in the 'Get in touch' form on the Labs page.
• Seed funding: use the 'apply here' link on the contact page. The link leads to a form we could not confirm is open.
• Accelerator: write to accelerator@axilor.com.

Before you apply

• The site links to more than one application form, and not all of them opened when we checked. Confirm the current route first.
• The website does not state eligibility or terms for the seed fund, so ask through the contact page before you prepare a full application.

Axilor is a Bengaluru-based investor that runs a seed fund for early-stage startups and a venture curation programme for HealthTech and life-science ideas. It also ran an accelerator in the past, and its homepage and older pages describe the organisation in different ways.

How the programmes work

Axilor Labs is a venture curation programme for research-oriented, IP-led ideas in HealthTech and the life sciences. Axilor describes these as ideas that need an innovative structure to take flight. Labs is entered through an enquiry form rather than a published intake, and its pages do not state a fee, equity terms or a location for it.

The seed fund invests in eight to twelve startups a year, according to the About page. The website describes the fund as helping early-stage startups succeed, but it does not publish eligibility criteria, a closing date or the terms of an investment.

The accelerator has run cohorts in the past. The About page cites a winter 2019 cohort of 14 startups, and no current batch, dates or application page appears on the website. A founder with a research-led idea should start with the Labs page, and a founder looking for funding should start with the contact page.

Who can apply

Labs is open to innovators with an IP-protected idea, and to entrepreneurs who want to solve life-science problems that have not been solved before. The seed fund is described as backing early-stage startups, but its website does not set out who qualifies. A 2018 post described the focus more narrowly, as early-stage tech startups in their first two to three years. The accelerator's audience is not stated on its pages.

The funds

The contact page lists three funds registered with SEBI as alternative investment funds: Axilor Technology Fund I (Category 1), Axilor Technology Fund II (Category 2) and Micelio Technology Fund I (Category 1). The named investment manager for each is Axilor Investment Advisors LLP. The homepage lists only two funds, Axilor Technology Fund I and Axilor Technology Fund II, so the two pages give different counts.

A July 2022 post says its first fund has been mostly deployed across 54 companies. The same post announced a second seed fund, which it said would keep investing in early-stage startups.

Scale

Axilor's pages give different counts of the startups it has supported. The homepage says it has 60 or more portfolio companies. A July 2022 post says it has engaged more than 150 startups over seven years, and its press page says it has accelerated the growth of more than 120 startups. These are all the company's own figures.

The July 2022 post also reports 54 investments, a 77% follow-on rate, a 48% conversion from seed to Series A, and a 10% portfolio mortality rate. The About page gives a different follow-on figure: it says 75% of its startups have a Series A follow-on investment. The About page also says its founder community has more than 400 members and gives a net promoter score of 83, up from 75 the year before. The Labs page says Axilor has evaluated more than 1,000 ideas every year.

Who runs it

Axilor's copyright notice names Axilor Ventures Private Limited. Its privacy notice names Axilor Investment Advisors LLP as the entity with a registered office in J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru, and the same LLP is named as investment manager for its funds. The website does not say which of these entities runs the programmes, and it does not state an operating office. The contact page also names people to write to for investment questions and for grievances.