Helion Ventures -- one of India's oldest venture capital firms which had invested startups like MakeMyTrip, Big Basket, Shopclues in their early stages, and was declared as India's "largest domestic venture capital firm" in 2012 by Economic Times is officially coming to the end.
Founded in 2006 by Rahul Chandra, Ashish Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh and Sanjeev Aggarwal, Helion was left with only one co-founder -- Rahul Chandra, when in 2016 the other three co-founders made exit from the VC firm.
Now in a latest development Rahul Chandra is launching a $100 million early-stage fund -- Unitary Helion . The fund will invest in sectors like fintech and digital marketplaces. And, with this move of Chandra, it's officially the end of Helion, a 11-year-old VC firm.
Chandra's Unitary Helion, which is looking to hit a first close of $40 million by October this year will add two more investment partners later this year.
Unitary Helion will look at creating a portfolio of 18 to 20 early stage startups.
Interestingly, Chandra has brought on board Jonathan Hsu, a partner and head of data science at Silicon Valley-based Social Capital, in order to adopt a proprietary data science based investment methodology. "Unitary is a smaller fund with a tighter focus as opposed to Helion. Our first close of $40 million will come from domestic capital," Chandra told Times of India.
The plans to raise a new fund on his own comes after the departure of several executives from Helion Venture Partners as in 2016, Helion executives Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri split from the firm to start their own venture capital firm, Stellaris Venture Partners. Stellaris announced a first close of $50 million in February. The firm plans to raise $100 million for its maiden fund.
Sanjeev Aggarwal and Ashish Gupta, the other co-founders of Helion are on board as advisors to the new fund. All three, including Chandra, will continue to actively manage the current Helion portfolio. The firm however will not be making any new investment hereafter is nearly dead this way.
Between 2000 and 2006, Rahul was based in Silicon Valley as part of the investment team at Walden International, a global venture capital firm with more than $2B under management. Between 2004 and 2005 he also led the M&A efforts at e4e Inc., a Santa Clara, CA based BPO company with more than 4,000 employees across the globe.
Rahul started Venture Capital investing in 1996 in India as the first hire at Walden's India office. In this role he managed investments for Walden's India dedicated Fund between 1996 and 2000.
Rahul has invested in more than 30 early-to-mid-stage companies such as Mindtree, Ikanos (IKAN), e4e Inc and Techspan (Headstrong). Prior to Walden, he worked in the Capital Markets Group at Lazard India, and in the Primary Market Department at the Securities Exchange Board of India.
Helion has created four funds -- a $140 million fund in 2006, a $210 million fund in 2008, a $255 million fund in 2012, and a $300 million fund in 2015
Founded in 2006 by Rahul Chandra, Ashish Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh and Sanjeev Aggarwal, Helion was left with only one co-founder -- Rahul Chandra, when in 2016 the other three co-founders made exit from the VC firm.
Now in a latest development Rahul Chandra is launching a $100 million early-stage fund -- Unitary Helion . The fund will invest in sectors like fintech and digital marketplaces. And, with this move of Chandra, it's officially the end of Helion, a 11-year-old VC firm.
Chandra's Unitary Helion, which is looking to hit a first close of $40 million by October this year will add two more investment partners later this year.
Unitary Helion will look at creating a portfolio of 18 to 20 early stage startups.
Interestingly, Chandra has brought on board Jonathan Hsu, a partner and head of data science at Silicon Valley-based Social Capital, in order to adopt a proprietary data science based investment methodology. "Unitary is a smaller fund with a tighter focus as opposed to Helion. Our first close of $40 million will come from domestic capital," Chandra told Times of India.
The plans to raise a new fund on his own comes after the departure of several executives from Helion Venture Partners as in 2016, Helion executives Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri split from the firm to start their own venture capital firm, Stellaris Venture Partners. Stellaris announced a first close of $50 million in February. The firm plans to raise $100 million for its maiden fund.
Sanjeev Aggarwal and Ashish Gupta, the other co-founders of Helion are on board as advisors to the new fund. All three, including Chandra, will continue to actively manage the current Helion portfolio. The firm however will not be making any new investment hereafter is nearly dead this way.
Between 2000 and 2006, Rahul was based in Silicon Valley as part of the investment team at Walden International, a global venture capital firm with more than $2B under management. Between 2004 and 2005 he also led the M&A efforts at e4e Inc., a Santa Clara, CA based BPO company with more than 4,000 employees across the globe.
Rahul started Venture Capital investing in 1996 in India as the first hire at Walden's India office. In this role he managed investments for Walden's India dedicated Fund between 1996 and 2000.
Rahul has invested in more than 30 early-to-mid-stage companies such as Mindtree, Ikanos (IKAN), e4e Inc and Techspan (Headstrong). Prior to Walden, he worked in the Capital Markets Group at Lazard India, and in the Primary Market Department at the Securities Exchange Board of India.
Helion has created four funds -- a $140 million fund in 2006, a $210 million fund in 2008, a $255 million fund in 2012, and a $300 million fund in 2015
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