Paradigm Shift Capital plans to deploy $15-20 million in early-stage startups

Mumbai: Paradigm Shift Capital, a soon-to-be launched US-based fund, plans to deploy $15-20 million over the next 12-15 months in early-stage startups in India and the United States.

The Delaware-based fund—which will be launched by Govind Mundhra, former chief financial officer of WeWork India, along with Surabhi Washishth, former human resource director at WeWork India, and Dhruv Washishth, a two-time founder—will deploy 70% of its capital in India and the rest in the US.

Based on the rolling fund structure, the fund—with an India commitment of up to $14 million— will receive cash infusions every quarter from its limited partners in the US and India. It plans to deploy up to $4 million every quarter.


The fund is industry agnostic and will focus on taking Indian startups to the US and European markets. In the US, it plans to focus on deep tech and startups in the Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) space.

“We want to back Indian companies that can build, not only for Tier-1 India market but for the global market,” Dhruv Washishth, the fund’s general partner, said. While building in India for global markets has been successful for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startups, Washishth said the fund plans to leverage India as a cost center to build in, for startups in other segments as well.

Paradigm has already signed two term-sheets. The pre-seed and seed investments made by the fund will range from $150,000 to $450,000.