An early-stage technology focussed fund Silverneedle Ventures (SNV), has launched its Rs 100 crore fund. Their first investment is in the creator monetisation platform Knorish. SNV has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in a Pre-Series A extension round of the start-up. 

The round is backed by marquee investors such as Andrew Holland, Bharat Serum Family Office, IPV, Mumbai Angels, and Jet Synthesys. Knorish is building a platform for creator monetisation through a sales funnel for online courses, webinars and memberships.

Knorish aims to utilise the fund by expanding and growing their business to new markets while planning to onboard more creators and use the rest of the fund to enhance their tech ability. Currently, it has a team of 32 people in technology, sales, customer success, content designing, and marketing. 

Founded by Kinner Sacchdevand Rakhi Wadhwa, the New Delhi-based start-up is tapping a market of 80 million creators and knowledge professionals in India who can eventually convert their skills into a creator business. Knorish claims to cater to 38,000 academies built by creators from 11 countries, impacting a million users in 45 countries. 

SNV is a sector-agnostic early-stage technology fund that partners with entrepreneurs to increase their probability of success through an active, hands-on approach. The fund aims to invest in Pre-Series A/Series A round of early-stage start-ups focused on B2B SaaS, deeptech, sustainability and D2C consumer internet, among a few other sectors. 

Ajay Jain and Deepesh Agarwal, also the founders of Xseed Partners, founded this fund. The team has a group of seasoned professionals who have invested in 30-odd early-stage investments and mentored numerous start-ups. 

Jain, co-founder and managing partner of SNV, said, “With our mentor-driven model approach, we will assign segment-specific experts across the globe for the portfolio, so that each start-up is taken on a growth trajectory. Our limited partners (investors), be it individuals, family offices or fund of funds, can fuel the growth for the start-ups.”

On the investment in Knorish, Agarwal, founding partner at SNV, added, “The team believes the creator economy stands at an inflexion point, as content creators are moving beyond simply working with brands and evolving their businesses by adding numerous revenue streams. As a result, platforms are moving fast to build an increasingly multifaceted offering of opportunities.” 

Kinner Sacchdev, co-founder and chief executive officer, claimed, “When creators set on their monetisation journey, their biggest challenge is not content creation or basic setup. The challenge, instead, is building sales funnels, which Knorish aims to solve.”