Aviral Bhatnagar Secures INR 100 Cr In His Maiden Fund For Pre-Seed Bets

A Junior VC (AJVC), a venture capital fund launched by former Venture Highway executive Aviral Bhatnagar, has reportedly closed its first INR 100 Cr fund targeting pre-seed investments in India.

The fund aims to exercise a greenshoe option to raise another INR 50 Cr.

“We are seriously considering exercising the greenshoe option given the overwhelming interest in the fund,” ET reported, citing Bhatnagar.

Inc42 has reached out to Bhatnagar for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on his response.

A former lead investor in SaaS, consumer, and AI sectors at Venture Highway, Bhatnagar launched AJVC in August last year. 

Bhatnagar, who had left the VC firm in April, identified a significant gap in India’s pre-seed ecosystem, where many founders struggle to raise their first round of funding.

Back then, he said, “….I aim to bring the decade-long learnings as an investor supporting startups to build AJVC.”

The fund is primarily made up of domestic capital, and its partners include Indian family offices, founders of Indian tech unicorns and executives at large investment firms.

The VC firm has so far backed nine pre-seed stage startups that are currently in stealth mode, most of which are based in Assam and Jharkhand, across sectors such as artificial intelligence, business-to-business, consumer brands and consumer tech.

(The story will be updated soon)

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