Meet 15 Indian stars that 500 Startups invested in

The 500 Startups footprint.

Six years ago, Dave McClure and Christine Tsai started an early-stage venture firm and accelerator in Silicon Valley. More than 1,400 companies have become part of its “badass, global” family since then. Yes, we’re talking 500 Startups.

Some 54 of these are in India, and as many as two dozen were funded last year alone.

India is the country it finds sweet as kulfi, that melt-in-the-mouth homegrown version of ice cream. Why? Because private equity investment is growing faster here than anywhere else in the world. India has a huge young population, the number of smartphone users is exploding, and so is the number of internet users.

500 Startups founder Dave McClure

The funding amounts in India range from US$25,000 to US$150,000 on the first check, and go up to about US$500,000 on follow-ons for the best performers. The VC firm is evidently bullish even though some of its babies, like Tushky, WalletKit, and Seat14a, failed to find their feet. 

It will be casting a keen eye at the edtech, health and wellness, data analytics, content, and software-as-a-service (SaaS)/small-and-medium business (SMB) sectors, says partner Pankaj Jain. He now heads 500 Kulfi, the new US$25 million fund for India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Dave, a self-confessed geek, investor, former coder, and internet marketing nerd, too expects “not less than 20, and possibly even 30 or 40” new investments in the country.

As he pays a visit, we look at 15 diverse firms that 500 Startups has funded in India:

Photo credit Alpha.

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EduKart

Instamojo

KartRocket

Lafalafa

MyGola

OnlineTyari

Origa

Pricebaba

Sheroes

SocialCops

SourceEasy

Switchme

Tripoto

Urjakart