First Cheque: India's earliest institutional backer for first-time founders

Every great startup begins with someone writing a first cheque — the hardest cheque of all, usually handed over when there is little more than a plan and a spark. First Cheque exists for exactly that moment. Founded in 2018 and operating under the umbrella of India Quotient, it is India's pre-seed specialist: the earliest institutional capital for first-time founders, comfortable backing teams at the paper-plan stage.

The fund was conceptualised by India Quotient as a separate operating company with its own brand, LPs and decision process, led by CEO Kushal Bhagia, with Prateek Agarwal as investment lead and Kanika Agarrwal, partner at India Quotient, steering its programmes. It began life as an AngelList syndicate that invested in over 100 startups, then institutionalised the model into dedicated funds. The firm runs on a founder-friendly philosophy: less weight on conventional prerequisites like educational pedigree or prior funding experience, and far more on founder-market fit.

The second fund, Fund II, closed at Rs 38 crore raised from global investors — taking total assets under management to Rs 90 crore — to invest in around 50 startups over 18 months. The standard deal is a US$100,000 first cheque at around a US$2 million valuation, deployed in under 30 days from first conversation to capital in the bank. For the current cohort, the fund is stepping up: investing in 15–20 startups over 18 months with average first cheques of up to US$500,000, with a special appetite for differentiated D2C brands in categories that are still wide open — kids' brands, sports, white goods and Gen-Z-first products.

First Cheque is sector-agnostic, and the portfolio proves it: Rocketlane, which went on to raise a US$60 million Series C led by Insight Partners; jewellery brand Giva; edtech platform Seekho; logistics tech Fleetx; B2B credit player Wint Wealth; beverage brand DrinkPrime; AI travel startup 30 Sundays, which raised its Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners; plus Able Jobs, Anar, BiteSpeed, Blitz and CapGrid. More than 130 startups have taken First Cheque's first cheque so far.

What sets the firm apart is its machinery around founders. It runs an in-house programme featuring leading founders, sector experts and VCs covering company-building, go-to-market, hiring, monetisation and fundraising; organises bi-annual demo days with top-tier VCs to simplify follow-on fundraising; and maintains an active community of over 200 founders for real-time mentorship on day-to-day problems. A network of more than 50 venture partners and undergraduate venture fellows keeps the fund plugged into emerging talent — including regular 1:1 office hours where any founder can spend 30 minutes with the investment team on idea validation, GTM, hiring or fundraising.

For a first-time founder with ambition and an early-stage idea, First Cheque is engineered to be the easiest yes in Indian venture capital.