KiwiVenture Partners plans to raise as much as $50 million for a new venture fund according to an SEC filing. The Georgetown-based venture capital branch of KiwiTech, KiwiVenture previously raised a $2.5 million fund in 2014. KiwiTech founders and brothers Rakesh and Neal Gupta run the venture firm, while Bill Cohen, president of KiwiTech for the last year is also a managing partner of KiwiVenture.
KiwiVenture has invested in about half a dozen tech startups for between $100,000 and $500,000 with its first fund. Like KiwiTech, those investments have centered on apps and platform technology including language education app Hello-Hello, reading platform, Librify and Brilatta, an app to help coordinate housekeeping at hotels.
According to a Reddit post from about a year ago, KiwiVenture has made overtures to startups where they offer seed funding and development help to entrepreneurs in exchange for equity. A user who said they'd been contacted about that deal asked for advice about it. A response from another user warned against it, claiming that it was a bad deal that charged entrepreneurs to develop their own idea and not actually invest any money.
"My overall opinion is that these guys are a waste of time and you can hire people from India for a fraction of what they want to charge you," the user wrote.
