South Park Commons, a Silicon Valley collective of engineers, founders, and researchers, is elevating an India-specific fund over six months after getting into the South Asian market in June, in keeping with a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) final week. The precise measurement of the fund is but to be decided, although the itemizing units the goal at $40 million.
Founded by Facebook’s first feminine engineer, Ruchi Sanghvi, in 2016, South Park Commons entered India final yr by partnering with Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal. The India chapter, primarily based in Bengaluru, was the primary international transfer of the platform that raised three funds to again early-stage startups within the U.S.
In 2018, Sanghvi was joined by her husband and enterprise associate, Aditya Agarwal, who beforehand labored at Dropbox as its VP of engineering.
Unlike conventional VC funds and incubators like Y Combinator, South Park Commons seems to be for technologists who’ve sturdy concepts however is probably not able to fundraise but — the “-1 to 0” stage, as the corporate says in its FAQ. The collective runs two totally different packages: Community Membership for entrepreneurs who aren’t trying to increase capital, and Founder Fellowship to again founders with complete funding of $1 million ($400,000 funding upon becoming a member of this system and a further $600,000 dedication for the subsequent enterprise spherical).
South Park Commons has round 175 energetic members and over 800 alumni, per its web site. Around 80% are founders, whereas the remainder are area consultants and researchers.
In September, the group employed Angel One government director and CBO Prateek Mehta as its founding associate for the India outpost.
India has been a difficult marketplace for startups general. The nation, dwelling to over 149,000 startups, per the federal government knowledge, has solely 117 unicorns — the startups with a minimum of a $1 billion valuation. It satisfied international VC funds together with Accel, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed to proceed bullish on the Indian ecosystem, whereas others like SoftBank and Tiger Global have discovered it difficult. Y Combinator additionally chosen simply 4 startups from India throughout its winter and summer season batches in 2024, down from 8 in 2023 and 47 in 2022.
Sanghvi and Agarwal didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
