Unicorn India Ventures Reviews Best Category-II AIF Leader 2025

Unicorn India Ventures Reviews

Unicorn India Ventures (UIV) stands out as one of India’s top alternative investment funds, renowned for its hands-on approach and disciplined investment philosophy in the rapidly evolving deep-tech, SaaS, and startup sectors. Founded in 2016 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar, UIV has consistently demonstrated the ability to deliver top-quartile performance and superior risk-adjusted returns to its Limited Partners (LPs), helping drive India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem beyond metropolitan hubs into Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Unicorn India Ventures Reviews

Investment Philosophy of Unicorn India Ventures

Unicorn India Ventures emerged in an era of rising Internet penetration, digital innovation, and new capital formation opportunities in India. The founders leveraged their deep professional networks and experience to establish a fund focused on backing visionary, driven startup founders capable of building world-class companies.

The investment thesis centers on enabling startups that are building for scalability, strong gross margins, low customer acquisition costs (CAC), and clear paths to profitability. UIV’s focus sectors include SaaS, fintech, healthtech, embedded technology, climate tech, agritech, spacetech, and the semiconductor ecosystem. Notably, UIV avoids high cash burn verticals such as D2C and content businesses, preferring fundamentally strong models that can withstand market cycles.

Unicorn India Ventures: Category-II AIF Leader

Proprietary Sourcing & Location Bias

UIV leverages a broad sourcing network, including founder connections, university incubators, and state government partnerships. Approximately 65% of its portfolio originates outside traditional metro VC hubs (Tier-II & Tier-III cities), capturing hidden value and diversifying risk across emerging geographies.

Deal Structure & Stage

The fund is known for securing high ownership via early-stage, valuation-conscious deals, often as a first institutional investor. Investment typically starts at the product-market fit (PMF) stage through Series A rounds, ensuring optimal risk-reward with an ability to follow on aggressively into breakout portfolio companies. Only 20% of the investible corpus is used for initial investments, and the remaining 80% backs “winners” to maximize upside for LPs.

Active Value Creation

UIV provides more than capital—offering mentorship, team building, operational support, and industry connections. The partners spend 3-4 months with founders before investing, closely assessing team chemistry, vision, and resilience. UIV’s due diligence is extensive, involving an on-call CTO for technical validation and direct commercial diligence with industry users.

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Performance and AUM of Unicorn India Ventures

Historical Returns

Fund I: Launched with INR 100 crore in 2016. Achieved TVPI of approximately 9x and DPI over 2x by year six, with a 60% CAGR after fees for LPs. Notable exits include Open Bank, which became India’s first “neobank” unicorn.

Fund II: INR 300 crore corpus; fully deployed with 80% reserved for follow-on into breakout growth. Projected DPI is 4-4.5x, with multiple portfolio companies raising successive rounds within their first year post-investment.

Fund III (Category-II): Announced first close at INR 225 crore in September 2023, targeting a final close of INR 1,000–1,200 crore in 2025. As of late 2025, Fund III has made 14 investments across deep tech, climate tech, and emerging sectors, with 25 companies targeted for the complete portfolio.

AUM Trajectory

Year/Stage	Fund	Category	Corpus / AUM (INR)
2016-2020	Fund I	Cat-1	100 crore
2020-Present	Fund II	Cat-1	300 crore
2023-Present	Fund III	Cat-2	1,200 crore (target)
2025 Estimated	All Funds	Cat-1 & 2	~1,600 crore ($180M+)

LP participation now includes both Indian and US-based partners, highlighting global confidence in UIV’s process.

Portfolio Companies of the alternative investment firms

UIV has a diversified and sector-conscious approach. Sample companies include:

Zealthix (healthcare SaaS)
BonV Aero (mobility, vertical take-off)
Exsure (exosome cancer therapy)
OrbitAID (satellite servicing)
PeLocal (fintech payments)
QubeHealth (digital health payment)
Beacon.li (enterprise AI)
Libryo (legal tech)

These represent UIV’s focus on technologies with high growth and transformational potential in both B2B and B2C domains.

Unicorn India Ventures Key Managers and Leadership

Name	Role	Domain Expertise
Anil Joshi	Managing Partner	Early-stage investing, founder mentorship
Bhaskar Majumdar	Managing Partner	Deal structuring, global growth strategy
Vinay Ambardekar	CFO	VC finance, compliance, governance
Bikram Mahajan	Partner (Fund III)	Portfolio management, scaling companies
Kamlesh Ahuja	VP Fund Ops	Back-office, compliance

Tier-II / III Geographic Advantage

UIV is known for pioneering investments outside India’s traditional VC epicenters. More than 60% of its 35+ investments have been sourced from Tier-II cities, benefitting from state partnership and local networks. This brings unique deal flow, valuation edge, and lower market correlation.

Value-Add Beyond Capital

UIV’s “mentor capitalist” approach supports founders beyond funding—helping them hire, grow, and create partnerships for scale. The team’s deep engagement reduces execution and governance risks and helps startups negotiate the demanding journey from seed to growth.

Exit and Partial Exit Strategy

Unlike funds waiting for major single-point exits, UIV employs partial exit strategies, delivering mid-life liquidity for LPs and optimizing returns by backing winners in later rounds. This flexibility has resulted in impressive realized multiples and mitigates the “J-curve” effect typical in private capital deployment.

Minimum Investment & Structure

For Category-II AIFs, the minimum investment is generally INR 1 crore. Investors must understand the longer lock-in periods (5–7 years), staged capital calls, and higher fee structure compared to mutual funds. UIV’s approach justifies fees with exclusive access to private deals, active management, and risk discipline.

Risks and Mitigations

Strengths	Risks/Considerations
Historic top-quartile performance	Illiquidity for several years
Exclusive deal access beyond metros	Higher minimum investment required
Disciplined portfolio follow-on strategy	Market/sector cyclicality risk
Proven exit track record	Returns depend on company outcomes.
Experienced professional team	Performance fees

UIV excels at risk control through in-depth diligence, sectoral balance, and focus on profitability. However, as with all AIFs, investors must be prepared for long-term commitments and venture-stage volatility.

Outlook on Unicorn India Ventures

Unicorn India Ventures Fund III (Category-II) represents a premium opportunity for sophisticated investors looking to play a part in India’s next wave of tech-driven growth. With robust sourcing, deep sector and geographic diversification, and a proven ability to nurture breakout companies, UIV offers access to alpha-generation in private markets backed by strong governance and institutional discipline.

The LP journey is supported by a flexible partial exit strategy, enabling liquidity before full fund life completion—a rarity in Indian venture capital. UIV’s consistently superior performance in prior funds (TVPI 6-9x, DPI 2x+) and focus on scalable, profitable business models sets it apart from the competition.