Singapore-based investment firm Grayscale Ventures has raised $10 million for its micro-fund, which will focus on pre-seed AI, vertical software as a service (SaaS) and development infrastructure start-ups. The $20 million fund will invest between $200,000 and $1 million in 15 to 20 companies over a decade, with a target ownership of 10 per cent in each invested start-up. 

The firm said it prefers to lead or co-lead fundraising rounds with other specialised funds. Grayscale Ventures, founded by Nikhil Kapur and Siddharth Verma, has limited partners from Japan, Southeast Asia, the US and India, including founders of Zendesk, Slack and Nexus.

The pair previously worked at STRIVE, backing pre-seed funding rounds in India for companies including Hasura, Classplus, 100ms, Reshamandi and Testsigma. During their time at STRIVE, the two founders also led secondary sales and mergers and acquisitions for portfolio firms such as Hasura, SuperK and PopXO. 

Grayscale Ventures has already invested in SaaS-based start-up Olvy and pharmaceutical billing software provider Localwell.

The announcement comes at a time when Indian start-ups are struggling to secure funding investments, although venture capital and private equity funds have been launched to support the sector. In February, PeerCapital completed the first closure of its maiden fund, raising $37.5 million.