YourNest Venture Capital Launches Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program

• The time-bound program will nurture, mentor and provide portfolio startups with access to relevant, experienced entrepreneurs.

• YourNest Venture Capital has been acknowledged as the ‘Youngest VC Fund’ in India and featured in the Top 10 Ranking by Returns in Preqin’s Ranking of VC and PE funds across Sectors and Vintage.

Early stage Venture Capital Fund, YourNest has further strengthened its vision of being a ‘Nurture Capital’ focused fund for startups in India by launching the coveted Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program.

The YourNest EIR program will aim to support proven entrepreneurs with disruptive ideas to build successful ventures of the future. This initiative further strengthens the commitment that YourNest has made to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. The time-bound program will nurture, mentor and provide potential entrepreneurs with access to a wealth of experience, insights and network from the entrepreneurs in residence that they can leverage.

Speaking on the development, Sunil Goyal, Managing Director and Fund Manager, YourNest Venture Capital said, “As part of our ‘Nurture Capital’ vision, we continue to pursue our commitment to back the best in the Indian startup ecosystem. I am delighted to launch our EIR program, which further reaffirms our commitment to recognize and support entrepreneurs who are in early stages of working on a new idea. Additionally, our EIRs will have the opportunity to provide strategic and operational mentoring to existing portfolio companies. The goal will, however, remain to develop a fundable concept that we can seed and help grow progressively.”

A startup idea needs an eco-system that preserves and promotes entrepreneurship in addition to early-stage funding. India has not been able to spawn as many entrepreneurs as it can, because of the lack of such support/mentoring systems. They need nurturing, emotional support and mentoring. According to a recent survey of entrepreneurs conducted by conducted by a reputed organization, 45% of respondents considered acquiring senior management talent as a harder challenge than attracting investors. With the EIR program, YourNest Venture Capital intends to overcome this impediment for its portfolio and achieve its vision of being a true ‘Nurture Capital’.

Nidhi Agarwal, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, YourNest Venture Capital

To further provide the portfolio companies a holistic 360-degree marketing and brand strategy support, Mohit Hira, an advertising and marketing professional as well as a co-founder, has been inducted into the leadership team at YourNest Venture Capital. Nidhi Agarwal joined YourNest in part-time capacity as their first EIR to support their portfolio from her experience as an Entrepreneur of four years with her fashion-tech venture KAARYAH. She comes with ~20 years experience across Marketing Strategy, Business Incubation and Finance.

YourNest Venture Capital has been acknowledged as the Youngest VC Fund featured in top 10 Ranking byreturns by the prestigious Preqin Ranking. The EIR Program and strengthening of the leadership will allow YourNest Venture Capital to further build on its core strength of handholding and supporting portfolio companies across business cycles.

About YourNest Venture Capital Fund

Founded in 2012, YourNest Venture Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in proven revenue, Pre Series A onwards Start Ups. YourNest has been acknowledged as the ‘Youngest VC Fund’ in India to be featured in the Top 10 Ranking by Returns in Preqin’s Ranking of VC and PE funds across Sectors and Vintage. YourNest Venture Capital has been the lead investor for 90% of their investee company with 11 out of 16 startups has already risen up-round funding and 7 out of 16 startups already broken even.

The fund invests in the new, connected economy and deep technology startups represented by the Internet of Things, Robotics, Electronic System Design, Enterprise SaaS comprising Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Block Chain among others. YourNest Venture Capital investments are primarily focused on B2B, B2B2C deep tech / deep tech enabled startups.

YourNest Venture Capital believes in being a ‘Nurture capital’ where, through a team of entrepreneurs, they work as ‘enablers’ for investee companies in diverse fields across technology, finance and leadership development. They have established experience in global exits on earlier investments - besides a well-reputed advisor base. The fund has an enviable network of professionals, innovators, business leaders, coaches and mentors, and offers one of the best eco-systems for startups in India.

YourNest Venture Capital’s Fund-I of $15M raised from 144 individual investors as well as 3 institutional investors - SIDBI’s India Opportunity Fund, IIFL Seed Ventures and Northgate Capital (a Silicon Valley based Fund of Funds) - has been fully committed to 16 companies. ‘YourNest India VC Fund-II’ is focused on leveraging evident unmet funding needs ranging from $0.5-1M in its chosen domains.

The portfolio of YourNest Venture Capital comprises 16 companies, including CRON Systems, KaHa, Uniphore Software, Momspresso, Rubique, Arya.ai, Smart Software Testing Solutions Inc, Simpli5d, SmartQ, seeDoc, Fashalot, aahaa stores, MoMark, Beta Out, Proof of Performance (PoP) and GolfLAN.