We are excited to launch Nepal’s first seed fund: Safal Seed, a platform that will work with investors and entrepreneurs to find ways to reduce risks, manage communications and relationships, share learnings, and take deliberate and prudent steps to help Nepali startups scale up and grow.
Nepal Communitere’s I-Cube Business Incubation Programme incubated 6 Nepali startups for a year, and prepared them to be scaled up. Five out of 6 of the companies pitched at Demo Day on November 30th where 3 companies made an ask for seed funds of approximately 20 lakhs each. The three companies are Around the Corner Restaurant, Orange Ball Pvt. Ltd., and 8Byte Creative studio. During Demo Day and two investor meet-ups, these three startups raised over 40 lakhs in the form of pledged investments.
The 3 I-Cube companies are now officially SAFAL Seedlings for two years: Safal Seed will be an administrator of these companies’ collected funds. Early stage startups often lack institutional support, and the gap between businesses and investors makes it difficult for these companies to grow or survive. Safal Seed will serve as a trusted administrative intermediary between the entrepreneurs and the group of investors. Similarly, Nepal has lacked a pipeline that enables early stage startups to take risks and grow to be able to vie for large foreign and domestic investments. Nepal Communitere, Safal Partners, and Antarprerana are creating an ecosystem where entrepreneurs can take risks, receive investments, and manage them wisely.
The SAFAL team has guided the entrepreneurs and made sure that they understand the valuation process, theinvestmentprocess, and the mentoring process. The companies and SAFAL Seed have already formalized the seed investment channel, method, and their relationship with each other. Safal Seed is now working towards raising and investing private capital in an organized manner to help these three early-stage companies grow as clearly and transparently as possible.
This has been made possible only because of like-minded organizations and individuals that believe in anenterprisingNepal,and believe that collaboration can lead to success. Safal Seed is a product of a ground-breaking collaboration between Nepal Communitere, SAFAL Partners, Antarprerana, corporate law firm Gandhi Associates, and accounting firm Reanda Biz Serve: all key players in the ecosystem, to pioneer the first seed fund in Nepal to invest in early-stage Nepali Startups.
Are you ready to become a pioneering seed investor in Nepal? We will continue to accept seed investments for our three startups until January 2019. Contact us if you’re interested in becoming one of Nepal’s first seed investors!
More information about Safal Seed is available in attached 2-pager.
