Founded by two Naval Veterans, the initial fund focuses on early-stage Defence, Aerospace and Deep Tech startups at pre-seed, seed, and Series-A stages.
New Delhi (India) July 30 : Defence tech investor ‘Jamwant Ventures Angel Fund’ founded by two Naval veterans, Commander Navneet Kaushik, and Commander Kartik Gopal, has announced first closure of its fund.
The angel fund, with ticket size of Rs 50 Lakhs to 400 Lakhs, focuses on Defence, Aerospace and Deep Tech startups at pre-seed, seed, and Series-A stages, has been fully subscribed at first close. The angel fund aligns with India’s vision to boost opportunities in aerospace and defence sector and markets with the changing economic environment, said its founders in a statement.
As India is on a glorious journey to become the third-largest economy in the world with a GDP of a US$5 trillion economy in the next three years and touch US$7 trillion by 2030 on the back of continued reforms, the government has made it a priority to boost opportunities in potential sectors and markets with the changing economic environment.
States, Commander Navneet Kaushik, co-founder of Jamwant Ventures Angel Fund, “It is encouraging to see that investors can now see the potential in Defence & Aerospace sectors and there are now funds that have defence as their special focus. There is a fervour in the investor community today that wants to be part of the growth story unfolding in the defence startup ecosystem. Our angel fund not only allows the HNIs, Ultra HNIs and strategic investors to be part of the journey but also gives an opportunity to relatively smaller investors to be part of this startup revolution in India. Considering the response from the investors and criticality of the sector, the fund is in process of increasing the size of the fund to enable wider participation.”
Says, Commander Kartik Gopal, co-founder of Jamwant Ventures Angel Fund, “There is huge potential in the current defence ecosystem for innovation and growth. We understand the needs of the defence ecosystem and are willing to go that extra mile to support the Atma Nirbhar Bharat in this growing sector. At Jamwant Venture, we not only intend to provide financial support to the startups but also the much-needed mentorship assistance that is required at early stages. While iDEX, Aditi and other startup schemes have made the defence requirements more accessible, there is still a need for mentorship for the startups to deliver on the challenges. We want to address this gap and have therefore created a team of advisors/domain experts with requisite hands-on experience, who can guide and mentor these startups to the next level.”
Founders
Commander Navneet Kaushik has experience of startup investments from Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of Department of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, which provides financial support to Indian companies for commercialization of Innovative and indigenous technologies. Prior to that he has served in the Indian Navy and has extensive experience in project management, defence acquisition and Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA), Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Government of India. Commander Kartik Gopal comes with a more than 25 years of experience in supply chain management (SCM), ERP systems and Quality management processes.
Advisory Board
On the advisory board, the fund has Vice Admiral AB Singh (Retd), who has held the appointments of Commander-in-Chief of both the operation commands of the Indian Navy and was heading Policy and Plans Division, Admiral KG Vishwanathan (Retd) who headed the India Navy’s Tactics and Strategy division of Indian Navy along with Dr Neeraj Sharma, former secretary of TDB and former head of National Science and Technology Development Entrepreneurship Board (NSTDEB). The fund also has Shri. AP Sarma, former executive vice president of IDBI Securities and former CEO of SIDBI Venture Capital Fund and Prof. Parag Bhargava of Department of Metallurgy, IIT Bombay.
It is of great significance to note that the Government of India has now shifted focus towards self-reliance in the defence sector. India is now looking to reduce its imports of defence equipment and to own a larger share of the pie in defence exports market. The startups ecosystem has the potential to be the promising vehicle that can lead the transformation from an importer of defence equipment to a net exporter and Jamwant intends to play a pivotal role in this ecosystem. The fund has already identified promising startups in defence and aerospace sector for investments and is in process of due diligence.
RSVP: Cdr Navneet Kaushik, Founder Jamwant Ventures; navneet@jamwantventures.com
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