Riceberg Ventures is a global early-stage venture capital firm. It has just announced the establishment of a dedicated deeptech fund worth $20 million. The fund will be used to invest in a variety of sectors. Sectors like spacetech and medtech to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, as well as robotics, novel energy, semiconductors, and quantum computing will be invested in. The purpose of this fund is to finance approximately 30 startups from around the world, investing on average $0.5 million per company.
PC: KrASIA
Focus on Deeptech and Indian Entrepreneurs
The founding partners of Riceberg Ventures, Ankit Anand, Mredul Sarda, Shubham Raj, and Lino Gandola, emphasize the need to empower Indian researchers and entrepreneurs. They claim that the Indian diaspora has played a crucial role in influential global innovations; however, Indian founders have traditionally encountered systemic challenges and deficiencies in access to early-stage capital. The firm helps to change this narrative by providing all the necessary resources to help such entrepreneurs thrive.
Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives
Riceberg Ventures is collaborating with E2MC Ventures on KickSky, India’s first spacetech accelerator. KickSky has launched its second cohort. The program starts in January 2025. It has an open call to the young startups in spacetech for participating in this ecosystem and expertise. This initiative goes well with the commitment of Riceberg towards creating an innovation in deeptech space.
Solving Funding Problems
The firm realizes that deeptech startups are often not able to raise funding because of their long R&D timelines and incubation periods, despite the potential to create groundbreaking technology solutions. Riceberg Ventures aims to guide startups from ideation to commercialization by leveraging its extensive network of scientists and industry experts, helping them grow in a competitive landscape.
Increasing Interest in Deeptech Investments
This fund has been raised at a time when interest in deeptech investments is increasingly building up. Recently, some other funds too have raised their corpus for funding startups in this space. For example, GrowX Ventures had launched Fund-II with the aim of raising Rs 400 crore, and 8X Ventures had first closed its second deeptech fund at Rs 200 crore last June.
So to summarise, with Riceberg Ventures raising a $20 million fund that could empower deeptech startups and especially Indian entrepreneur-led startups, the firm focuses on addressing all funding challenges by bringing strategic support, which would innovate and drive growth in this crucial sector.
