NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Seattle, USA and Bangalore, India. Unitus Seed Fund (USF) has secured over $8 million in investment commitments for its seed-stage venture capital fund focused on accelerating “BoP startups” – startups serving low-income consumers – in India. USF invests in for-profit scalable companies that will provide economic self-reliance, education, and basic necessities to millions of low-income people living at the base of the economic pyramid (aka “BoP”). USF has also recruited a strong group of venture advisors to provide expert support to its portfolio companies.

Several impact investing luminaries are among the founding investors of the fund: Mike Murray (co-founder of microfinance pioneer, Unitus Labs), Jeff Clark, Vinod Khosla (Founder, Khosla Ventures and Khosla Impact), 500 Startups, and Bob Gay (Formerly Huntsman-Gay and Bain Capital). Co-investors in India include T.V. Mohandas Pai (Chairman of Aarin Capital Partners), and Dr. Ranjan Pai (CEO of Manipal Education and Medical Group).