Astarc Group bets on startups

January 06, 2016 12:00 am | Updated September 22, 2016 10:26 pm IST - Mumbai:

Mumbai-based Astarc Group, which commenced its operations 33 years ago, is bitten by the startup bug in the country and wants to bet big on the segment. The Rs 500-crore group deals with automotive decals.

“Fifteen months ago, I was reading a lot about the startups and the interest it was generating. That’s when our group decided that we need to be in the segment,” said Salil Musale, promoter, AstarcVentures, a family fund, which the group has created to invest in startups. The group started with focus on making automotive graphics for motorcycles for Hero and Bajaj.

Presence established

Later it has established its presence in the automotive, retail, agro, and infrastructure verticals across India, Indonesia, East Africa (Tanzania, Uganda), and the US with over 1,300 people globally.

AstarcVentures has created a seed fund of $2 million which it plans to take it to $10 million in two years. It will invest in more than 10 startups.

Plan to invest

The fund is planning to invest in retail tech/analytics, automotive market places, Internet, 3D printing, digital healthcare, and Fin Tech besides digital and mobile consumer businesses.

“The idea is to invest in areas where we have presence and that startups can complement us. We might even look at acquiring the startups at a later stage,” he said. The Venture has already invested in three companies. It has invested Rs 6 crore in Foyr, an online interior designing company.

It has also put money in TravelKhana, a food-ordering app for railway passengers. Another company in which Astarc has pumped in money is Absentia Virtual Reality. This is a startup founded by a group of BITS Pilani Goa dropouts, who have developed a Virtual Reality HeadMount Device called Tesseract.

Disruptive startups

“We are looking at the range of disruptive startups and investing primarily in seed stage companies,” Mr Musale said.

He said the firm is looking to invest in startups overseas, mainly in Silicon Valley and Israel.

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