IndiaQuotient

How to approach them

• There is no dated call or deadline. The firm says to find it on LinkedIn and Twitter, at events and conferences, or through common friends, and to become friends with its existing founders. As a last resort you can email a team member or fill the form linked from its FAQ.
• Lead with your product. It says a link to a working product is the best pitch and that it prefers demos over decks.
• Fit the sectors: SaaS, B2B marketplaces, brands, social or media, fintech or consumer. Hardware made in India is also something it names as welcome.
• Do not expect a grant. This is equity funding, and it is for the first cheque or a seed round, not a later growth round.

What it screens for

• Its own list of founder traits: hunger, hustle, a single focus, frugality, and a taste for breaking norms.
• Describe yourself in a word or two, as it asks. It likes unusual backgrounds.
• It is open to copycat ideas but wants evidence that you will execute and write your own script.

Before you call

• Read the published term outline: vesting over 4 years with a 1-year cliff, broad-based weighted average anti-dilution, a board seat, and 30 days of exclusivity.
• Expect a first call, then a pitch to two or more partners, then the whole team. A term sheet follows within 24 hours of its investment committee.
• Plan for a few weeks of conversations, not days. The firm says it can be as little as one week, but prefers slower dating.

IndiaQuotient is a Bengaluru venture firm that invests at the pre-seed and seed stage. On its own site it says it looks for founders with EQ, IQ and what it calls IndiaQ, and that it has been backing early teams for the last 14 years. Early cheques it names include Sharechat, Sugar, Lendingkart, Vyapar, Dhiwise and Frnd. It is an equity investor, not a grant-giver: this is a page for founders who want a first institutional cheque, not free money.

Who it is for

The firm says it invests at paper stage with as much conviction as when you have a handful of customers, and that this has let many of its founders skip the angel round. It prefers demos over decks, though an email will do. The best time to pitch, it says, is when you have not got a single customer, and the best form of pitching is a link to your product.

Where it invests

It lists six areas: India and Global SaaS, B2B Marketplaces, Brands, Social / Media, Fintech and Consumer. Its portfolio page also groups companies under enterprise and software, B2B marketplaces, fintech, consumer and social or media. Outside those, it describes itself as comfortable with unglamorous problems faced by ordinary people, as long as the business promises to grow quickly. It adds that it prefers execution to novelty and does not mind inspiration from elsewhere as long as you write your own script.

How the process works

It starts with an initial call, usually on Zoom with a partner or an associate. Next comes a pitch to a larger group of two or more partners, then either a pass or a final pitch to the whole team, with some informal coffees in between. After its investment committee, it says a term sheet follows within 24 hours. The whole thing can take as little as one week, though the firm prefers a slower pace so founders can get to know it. Each partner makes only 3 or 4 deals a year, which the firm says is why each deal gets real attention.

What you get besides the cheque

The firm promises no board meetings in the usual sense and says it helps founders pick the right things to measure. Portfolio founders get two days of offsites twice a year with the whole portfolio, informal monthly huddles around industry experts, and a WhatsApp peer group where founders solve problems for each other.

Terms to expect

IndiaQuotient publishes an outline of its standard terms on its site: convertible preferred stock, vesting over 4 years with a 1-year cliff, non-participating liquidation preference, broad-based weighted average anti-dilution, one board seat, a founder lock-in, and exclusivity of 30 days. Read it before your first call so the conversation starts from the same page.

Who runs it

The team page lists Anand Lunia and Madhukar Sinha as Founding Partners, with Sahil Makkar and Kanika Agarrwal as Partners. The firm is the investment manager to several SEBI-registered alternative investment funds, listed on its AIF registration page.