Together Fund, a Bengaluru-based venture capital firm, successfully raised $150 million for its early-stage fund, Together Fund II, with a focus on supporting SaaS and AI startups. The fund aims to invest between $1 million to $5 million in promising seed and Series A rounds. Founded by industry veterans, the firm has a diverse portfolio of startups and believes in the transformative potential of AI in the business landscape. Despite challenging funding conditions, the technology ecosystem in India continues to thrive.
Together Fund, a Bengaluru-based venture capital firm announced on Thursday (July 27) that it has successfully raised a portion of its early-stage fund, Together Fund II.
This fund, totaling $150 million will primarily focus on supporting SaaS and AI startups. The impressive interest, in this fund comes from both investors in the United States and Asia. In a statement Together Fund mentioned that they plan to invest between $1 million to $5 million in seed and Series A rounds of promising startups.
Manav Garg, one of the founding partners of Together Fund expressed his excitement about raising their fund. He highlighted the progress made by their existing portfolio. How it reflects the thriving technology ecosystem in India despite challenging funding conditions and macroeconomic factors. Garg emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) is currently a shining opportunity in the business landscape. They firmly believe that AI has become an asset for enterprises to revolutionize existing solutions and provide value to customers.
This year Together Fund had already declared a corpus of $85 million dedicated to supporting SaaS startups. They pride themselves on being a founder of venture capital funds. The firm was established by individuals such as Girish Mathrubootham (founder and CEO of Freshworks) Manav Garg (founder and CEO of Eka Software) Shubham Gupta ( with Matrix Partners) and Avinash Raghava (previously, with Accel). This year Raghava decided to step down from his position, as a partner at Together Fund.
Together Fund has stated that over the course of two years, they have worked with more than 1,700 startups and invested in 20 founding teams across areas such as recruitment, sales intelligence, marketing, healthcare-focused vertical SaaS companies, and startups that are revolutionizing connected devices through cloud technology.
Their portfolio consists of a range of founders. From first-time entrepreneurs to professionals. It includes startups based in cities like Chennai and Bengaluru well as emerging tier II cities like Surat. Notably, some of their portfolio companies such as Kula, Privado, Revenue Hero, Spendflo, Spry, and Toplyne have successfully secured funding from investors.
While Together Fund has primarily focused on SaaS ventures far they now recognize the potential AI presents for startups. They believe that with the rate of change in this field early adopters can establish and dominate markets within a matter of weeks or months. This belief has led them to extend their founder approach with their fund. Supporting founders right from the beginning stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
Mathrubootham, one of the founding partners at Together Fund explains this decision by emphasizing the once, in a generation opportunities presented by both SaaS and AI industries.
During the three months Together Fund has made investments in three AI companies operating in the fields of healthcare, developer infrastructure, and modern marketing stack. These investments aim to establish early-stage partnerships, with founders who prioritize AI technology as an aspect of their businesses.
Despite the funding environment, several venture capital firms have successfully closed their funds in months. Vertex Ventures, the VC arm of Singapores Temasek achieved the close of its Vertex Master Fund III at $900 million last month.
In June of this year, Blume Ventures celebrated the closing of its opportunity cum continuity fund called Fund 1Y. Similarly, 3one4 Capital concluded its fourth early-stage investment fund known as Fund IV with a value of $200 million. Chiratae Ventures also announced the closure of its debut fund. Additionally, Aeravti Ventures made an announcement regarding reaching the closing milestone for its fund.
Meanwhile, amidst funding challenges, startup funding has significantly decreased to $5.4 billion in H1 2023 compared to $19 billion during the period last year as per reports, from industry experts.
