Good Capital Launches $50 Million Fund to Back AI Startups in India

Seed-stage, India-focused VC firm Good Capital on Friday announced a new $50 million fund to back founders who are leveraging AI for distribution, personalisation or business operations.

Good Capital said it is deploying the fund with target cheques of up to $1.5 million over the next 4 years.

The VC firm has been an early investor in unicorns such as Meesho and LEAD School.

“Integrating AI is now table stakes for any startup. Much like the platform shift to mobile in the past, the success of tech businesses will depend on how they leverage AI”, said Good Capital co-general partner Arjun Malhotra.


“This isn’t an AI-focused fund as much as a recognition of a land-grab moment, where startups leveraging AI in intelligent ways will have the right-to-win,” he added.

The company made investments in firms such as OrangeHealth which raised Series A funding from General Catalyst and Accel Partners, SimSim which was acquired by Google, and SolarSquare which raised a $13mn Series A funding led by Lowercarbon and Elevation Capital.

“We invest with deep conviction by being lead investors for every investment we make”, said Good Capital co-GP Rohan Malhotra.


Shreya Mishra, CEO and co-founder of SolarSquare, said that Good Capital has been instrumental in its growth “by first leading our Seed round and then introducing us to Lowercarbon Capital who led our Series A round.”

Vidit Aatrey, CEO and co-founder of Meesho, added that the VC fund worked with them “through several iterations of what eventually became Meesho’s business model and played a role in guiding us and helping us with challenges.”

Rohan and Arjun had earlier founded Investopad in 2014. "Along the way, we met some really smart founders and invested some of our own capital in their ideas," said the duo, sharing their story on their website.


"We loved working with founders, especially at the stage when they’re still conceptualizing ideas and experimenting with products. To be able to do this again and again, we left Investopad and launched Good Capital in September 2019."

The duo added: "While we don’t have a sector-specific focus, we tend to invest in technology products solving India-centric problems. We’re generally quite excited about software that can enable middlemen, traders, and micro-SMEs through technology – Meesho and Wealthy are two examples from our portfolio.

"We believe that empowering existing industries with technology (rather than disruption) is a superior approach for the local market." - IANS with inputs from TWL Bureau