Investor Profile: 100X.VC — The iSafe Micro-VC Cheque Machine

100X.VC is a Mumbai-based micro VC that has industrialised first-cheque investing in India. Founded in July 2019 by entrepreneur-turned-angel investor Sanjay Mehta through his family office Mehta Ventures, it is a SEBI-registered Category 1 AIF aiming to be the first institutional investor in its portfolio. Its homepage milestones read 400+ founders, 180 companies, $90Mn+ in follow-on funding and 2,010 jobs created.

Thesis and focus areas

The thesis is in the name: invest in 100 early-stage startups a year — roughly 25 a quarter — across sectors. The team flips the usual diligence lens from "what could go wrong?" to "what can go right?" in pursuit of moonshots, and calls itself a "discovery fund". The core filters are founding-team quality, market size, business-model strength and moat, and a conviction that returns could reach at least 20x.

Fund size and cheque size

The debut fund size was never publicly disclosed — early reports pegged it around $5 million. In 2022 the firm launched a ₹125 crore (over $16.5 million) fund to back 100 startups over twelve months on a rolling basis. The original cheque was ₹25 lakh for a 7% equity stake at the next financing round, later scaled to ₹1.25 crore for 15%. 100X.VC does no follow-on rounds itself — it stays invested, targets a minimum 20x return, and reinvests realised proceeds.

Notable portfolio

Sourced portfolio names include The Renal Project (later on Shark Tank India), Smiles.ai (later a $23 million Series A led by Alpha Wave Incubation), Super Scholar, Kerala Banana Chips and RecordBook (follow-on investor: India Quotient). Class 07 brought in BugBase, Zerobalance, GoCrow, Emo Energy, Plik, Papa Pawsome, Helppr, Kloudmate, ToastApp and Quriverse. Forbes India reported 80% of the first 70 portfolio startups raised follow-on funding.

Partners

Sanjay Mehta is founder and partner — a two-time entrepreneur with 130+ angel investments, including an early bet on Oyo that returned a reported 280x. Ninad Karpe, partner, was CEO of Aptech. Yagnesh Sanghrajka is CFO, formerly in finance leadership at Bessemer Venture Partners, MT Educare and the Phoenix Mills group. Shashank Randev (built and led VCCEdge) leads investor relations, and Vatsal Kanakiya is CTO.

Programs, credits and perks

The signature instrument is the iSAFE note — India Simple Agreement for Future Equity, an open-sourced five-page document adapted from Y Combinator's SAFE for India replacing 50–60-page agreements that take months to close. Founders also get 100+ hours of mentoring over 1–3 months and an invite-only VC Pitch Day for angels, HNIs, family offices and larger funds. The not-for-profit stack includes 100X Gurukul (a free 12-week programme), Founders' Dating (co-founder matching), and Sanjay Mehta's pro-bono venture-investing masterclass. No standalone founder credits or perks programme is publicly advertised.

How founders can approach them

100X.VC receives 50 to 100 pitches a day; Sanjay Mehta and Ninad Karpe do the initial screening and all five co-founders weigh in on the final call. Rolling applications mean accepted startups are funded within two weeks via iSAFE notes. Come prepared on team, market size, moat and a 20x return case; if you're pre-revenue, 100X Gurukul is a no-cost route into the ecosystem.